Texas Tornado and Severe Weather Climatology

 

City County Average #
of Severe Thunderstorm 
Watches per year		 Average # of Tornado Watches per year Avg #  tornadoes reported annually in county 1970-2010 / total
Abilene Taylor 9 14 1 / 43
Alpine Brewster 3 5 < 1 / 11
Amarillo Potter 5 13 < 1 / 23
Austin Travis 5 12 1 / 42
Beeville Bee 4 6 <1 / 24
Beaumont-Port Arthur Jefferson 10 6 2 / 75
Big Spring Howard 7 13  1 / 33
Brownsville Cameron 1 2 1 / 47
Brownwood Brown 8 14 < 1 / 23
Childress Childress 10 15 < 1 / 23
College Station Brazos 7 9 < 1 / 18
Corpus Christi Nueces 3 4 1 / 62
Corsicana Navarro 8 16 1 / 26
Dalhart Dallam 3 11 < 1 / 23
Dallas Dallas 7 13 1 / 66
Del Rio Val Verde 6 9 1 / 35
Eagle Pass Maverick 3 6 < 1 / 10
El Paso El Paso 0 1 < 1 / 5
Fort Stockton Pecos 5 9 1 / 47
Fort Worth Tarrant 7 13 2 / 69
Galveston Galveston 9 8 2 / 88
Hereford Deaf Smith 4 12 1 / 26
Houston Harris 9 9 5 / 189
Huntsville Walker 7 10 < 1 / 13
Kerrville Kerr 6 12 < 1 / 7
Laredo Webb 2 5 < 1 / 6
Llano Llano 5 12 < 1 / 10
Longview Harrison 8 11 1 / 41
Lubbock Lubbock 6 13 2 / 71 
Lufkin Angelina 9 11 < 1 / 25
McAllen Hidalgo 1 2 1 / 33
McKinney Collin 9 14 1 / 28
Midland Midland 5 11 1 / 26
Mineral Wells Palo Pinto 9 15 1 / 26
Odessa Ector 4 9 1 / 37
Paris Lamar 9 15 1 / 33
Pecos Reeves 3 7 1 / 32
Presidio Presidio 1 3 < 1 / 2
San Angelo Tom Green 8 15 1 / 45 
San Antonio Bexar 5 9 1 / 42 
Sherman Grayson 9 16 1 / 43
Sonora Sutton 7 12 < 1 / 5
Temple Bell 7 13 1 / 47
Texarkana Bowie 9 13 1 / 42
Tyler Smith 8 14 1 / 44
Van Horn Culberson 1 4 < 1 / 6
Victoria Victoria 5 7 < 1 / 22
Waco McLennan 7 13 1 / 45
Wichita Falls Wichita 12 15 1 / 35

 

An average of 153 tornadoes touch down in Texas each year. Tornadoes may occur in any month, but occur most often during April, May and June between the hours of 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. In the period 1959-2000, 6417 tornadoes were reported in Texas, with 63% of tornadoes occurring from April-June and 33% occurring in May. From 1950-2007, Texas encountered 84 tornadoes with a strength of F4 or higher (winds > 207 mph). Texas ranks 11th among the 50 states in density of tornadoes with an average of 5.7 tornadoes per 10,000 square miles per year.  The U.S. record for the fastest tornado winds occurred at Wichita Falls on April, 2 1958 with a top wind speed of 258 mph.  

Hail is common with severe thunderstorms during the spring, mainly in North and Northwest Texas where 2.5 inch hail (tennis ball size) or greater occurs on the average of 2.5 days per year. During the period 1950-2007, Texas experienced 348 incidents of 4.0 inch hail (grapefruit size) or greater, causing $578 million in damage.

Data sources - Severe thunderstorm / tornado watch data period is 1999 - 2008, NOAA Storm Prediction Center, tornado total - National Climatic Data Center