Val Verde County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Val Verde County: 0.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Aug 23, 1998Flash Flood$40.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   By nightfall on the 23rd, the central low pressure associated with the remainder of Charley had indeed stalled near Del Rio. A second seige of devastating rain fell between 9 pm and 2 am, producing over 10 inches by midnight. The intense rain was again in a "feeder band", oriented north to south over Del Rio and extending up the Devils River to above Bakers Crossing, eventually drifting slowly eastward to the Sycamore and Pinto Creek drainages. Heavy rain began falling in Del Rio at 9 pm, and produced 10 inches of rain by midnight. In all, nearly 18 inches of rain fell between 8 am Sunday morning and 6 am Monday morning. This is approximately the annual rainfall for Del Rio.…

2. Sep 1, 1996Drought, Val Verde$12.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Drought persisted through September across the southwestern part of South Central Texas. Monthly crop damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

3. Apr 11, 2020Hail$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A thunderstorm produced four inch diameter hail in Del Rio. The large hail that hit the City of Del Rio likely caused in excess of 10 million dollars in damage but as of this writing do not have an accurate estimate of damage from city/county/state officials or private insurance companies.

4. Oct 1, 1996Drought, Val Verde$10.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Drought persisted through October across the southwestern part of South Central Texas, although heavy rainfall alleviated conditions over much of the Hill Country near the end of the month. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

5. Dec 1, 1996Drought, Val Verde$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Drought persisted through December across the southwestern half of South Central Texas. Brief periods of light rain, sleet and snow during the month again added some moisture to soils across the area. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

6. Jan 1, 1997Drought, Val Verde$8.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Drought persisted through January across the southwestern half of South Central Texas. Brief periods of light rain, sleet and snow during the month again added some moisture to soils across the area. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

7. Feb 1, 1997Drought, Val Verde$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Drought persisted through February across the southwestern half of South Central Texas. Brief periods of light rain during the month continued to add small amounts of moisture to soils across the area. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

8. Jan 7, 1997Winter Storm, Val Verde$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong cold front moved southward into central Texas on the evening of Saturday, January 4th, and for the next three days, colder air continued to filter southward into the area. By early Tuesday morning, an upper level system to the west had begun a slow approach toward south Texas, and widespread light rain began changing into sleet across the western part of the Texas Hill Country. The sleet developed into a wintery precipitation mixture of sleet, freezing rain and snow across the Hill Country by Tuesday evening as the upper level system continued to draw closer. The only reports of sleet across the remainder of South Central Te3xas were very random and indicated no…

9. Mar 1, 1997Drought, Val Verde$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Scattered showers and thundestorms added some moisture to soils across South Central Texas, mainly northeast of a line from Kerrville to San Antonio to Karnes City. Drought conditions continued through March over the southwestern portion of this area. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

10. Apr 1, 1997Drought, Val Verde$3.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Scattered showers and thunderstorms again added moisture to soils across South Central Texas. As in the past several months, the rain was mainly along and northeast of Kerrville to San Antonio to Karnes City line. Southwest of this area, drought conditions continued through the month of April. Monthly damages are based on the estimated annual loss to agriculture across all of Texas through this year. Property damages do not include business or commercial revenue losses.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

115°FJun 21, 2023

All-time low

10°FDec 23, 1989

Warmest night

87°FJul 13, 1998

Coldest day

23°FDec 22, 1989

Wettest day

17.03 inAug 23, 1998

Snowiest day

11.2 inFeb 18, 2021

Hottest year

2024mean 76.4°F

Coldest year

1976mean 67.4°F

Wettest year

196933.22 in

Driest year

19564.34 in

Snowiest season

13.6 in2020-21

Station Del Rio International Airport (USW00022010), 1,003 ft elevation, 1.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1951 to October 26, 2026; 99.8% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00022010.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.