52
Recorded events
1
Direct deaths
0
Direct injuries
$207K
Property damage
Thunderstorm Wind in Willacy County, Texas: 52 recorded events between 1966 and 2024. The strongest on record measured 78. That places the county #2,700 nationally and #214 statewide for this hazard.
Decade by decade
Thunderstorm Wind in Willacy County, Texas: events per decade
Reporting practice changed over time — early decades are undercounted, not calmer.
The busiest decade for thunderstorm wind in Willacy County is the 2010s, when 17 of the county's 52 recorded events were logged. Comparing decades is useful for spotting active periods, but the earliest years are thin because systematic reporting for this hazard began later.
Within the Willacy County archive, thunderstorm wind makes up 31.3% of all recorded severe weather across 8 hazard types. Nationally the county sits at #2,700 for this hazard and #214 within Texas, putting it in the 14.3 percentile of all U.S. counties.
Seasonality
Events by month
May is the peak month for thunderstorm wind in Willacy County with 20 recorded events, while Jan is the quietest. Seasonality here is a property of the archive as much as the climate: reports cluster where population and spotter networks are densest.
Significant events
Deadliest on record
| Date | Location | Scale | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 3, 1988 | 78 | 1 | 0 | $0 |
Most recent
Latest recorded events
| Date | Location | Magnitude | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 16, 2024 | LA SARA | 55 | $0 |
| Apr 23, 2023 | RAYMONDVILLE | 61 | $40K |
| Apr 4, 2020 | SAN PERLITA | 61 | $30K |
| Aug 25, 2019 | RAYMONDVILLE | 56 | $25K |
| Jun 24, 2019 | LA SARA | 56 | $10K |
| Jun 10, 2019 | YTURRIA | 61 | $15K |
| Jun 5, 2017 | RAYMONDVILLE | 52 | $500 |
| Jun 5, 2017 | LYFORD | 43 | $3K |
| Sep 4, 2016 | LA SARA | 43 | $2K |
| Sep 11, 2015 | SAN PERLITA | 52 | $3K |
Other hazards here
More from Willacy County
- Hail 44
From the record
What the reports say
Written by National Weather Service staff at the time of the event · public domain
A microburst from a cluster of thunderstorms moving through Raymondville toward Lyford rolled a new but unsecured mobile home just west of Raymondville. Nearby, several fences were blown down, and the door to an industrial building was blown in. Farther south, at about the same time, an amateur radio operator reported |estimated wind gusts of 50 mph or higher occurred just north of Lyford.
Pictures from the Raymondville area of Willacy County showed damage from a line from south of HWY 186 and S 1st Street to a quarter mile north of the Raymondville Country Club along S 7th Street. Some of the pictures included a part of a wood roof peeled back from a porch on W Gem Street and some gate and metal roof damage to a garage along S 7th Street. There was also a video shared from the Holiday Inn Express near the intersection of US-77/I-69E and HWY 186 looking to the southwest showing a large gust front blowing through Raymondville in the areas mentioned above. A closer inspection of the video shows some debris lofted into the air and was used a guide for the estimated 70 mph wind gusts. The time is based on the video and radar.
A mini-supercell thunderstorm rolled through central and southeastern Willacy County a little more than an hour after sunrise, and produced damaging winds near San Perlita and on nearby ranches around 830 AM CDT. One residence in San Perlita, fully exposed to the northwest, sustained significant damage when its poorly constructed roof lifted off. The residence was a mobile home with a separate addition on a pier/block foundation. Nearby damage was noted along an 5.28 mile stretch of State Highway 186, with more than a dozen wooden power poles broken, uprooted, or leaning. Nearly all of the broken poles showed notable rot at the breakpoint, and others were only anchored in shallow soil. In total, county Emergency Management mentioned a total of 26 poles were damaged. The survey revealed a range of estimated wind speeds from 61 to 70 mph.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
How many thunderstorm wind events are on record in Willacy County, Texas?
52 thunderstorm wind events are recorded in Willacy County between 1966 and 2024, causing 1 direct deaths.
What is the strongest thunderstorm wind recorded in Willacy County?
The strongest thunderstorm wind on record in Willacy County measured 78.
Where does the thunderstorm wind data for Willacy County come from?
All events come from the NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database, the federal public-domain archive of severe weather reports. Dates are UTC, damage is as reported and not inflation-adjusted, and the most recent entries may still be revised.
Cite this page
“Thunderstorm Wind in Willacy County, Texas.” Severe Weather History. severeweatherhistory.com/county/texas/willacy-county/thunderstorm-wind/ · Data: NOAA/NCEI, FEMA, U.S. Census — public domain.