Harris County, Texas

What hazards hit Harris County most?

The most frequent records are severe thunderstorm wind events: 716 since 1955. The rank column places the county among Texas's counties by days with a record per 1,000 square miles of land over each hazard's complete period.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database (county and forecast-zone records attributed to the county; a zone record shows its own totals on each county it covers). Days: dates with at least one record of the hazard in the county. Ranks: days with a record per 1,000 square miles of land (Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer), since 1950 for tornadoes, 1955 for hail and thunderstorm wind, 1996 for the rest.

How many tornadoes has Harris County had?

NOAA records 254 tornadoes in Harris County from 1950 to 2025, the strongest rated F4, with 13 deaths and 325 injuries recorded in the county. That is 7th of 254 Texas counties and 55th of 3,080 U.S. counties by days with tornadoes per 1,000 square miles since 1950. A tornado that crossed a county line is counted in each county it touched, with the length of its path inside the county.

Counted as whole tornadoes rather than county records, the Storm Prediction Center's database holds 253 tornadoes whose track touched Harris County since 1950 (NOAA's county records number 254: they file a crossing tornado once per county segment, and the two databases differ on some tracks); along their whole tracks they killed 12 people, 13 of them in Harris County.

Map of the strongest tornado tracks in Texas.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, tornado records by county (path length in the county, maximum width); ratings as published: F scale before February 1, 2007, EF scale after. Whole-track figures: NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database (1950-2025). SPC severe weather database.

When was the last damaging storm in Harris County?

The most recent record with damage, injuries or deaths is the May 27, 2026 thunderstorm wind ($23,000 in damage in 2025 dollars).

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database; every record of 2025-2026 is listed, earlier ones when they caused deaths, injuries or $250,000 of damage (2025 dollars), and every tornado.

The deadliest and costliest records

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: deaths and injuries direct and indirect; damage is property plus crops as estimated by the National Weather Service, converted to 2025 dollars.

Is it getting more frequent?

Records per decade for Harris County's most frequent hazards. Counts rose everywhere after 1996, when NOAA began recording every event type, so compare decades within a hazard's complete period only (the shaded cells come before it).

Heat in the 2020-26: 17 records against 5 in the decade before, 17 of them forecast-zone records. Cells marked z rose mostly through zone records. The local National Weather Service office files these once per forecast zone, so a change in how it draws its zones or splits a storm into records moves this count as much as the weather does; read it beside the Harris County days with a record above.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records per calendar decade; zone records from the CZ_TYPE field (Z).

What time of year?

Records by month in Harris County. The two busiest months are in violet.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records by the month they began.

Federal disaster declarations for Harris County

FEMA's register lists 41 declarations that include Harris County: 30 major disasters, 10 emergencies and one fire management assistance declaration. Most were for hurricane (12) and flood (12).

The 40 most recent of 41 are listed; the CSV has every one.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), declarations through October 2, 2026; one declaration is counted once however many areas it names. OpenFEMA dataset page.

How many floods has Harris County had?

NOAA's Storm Events Database holds 238 flood or flash flood records for Harris County from 1996 to 2026, on 158 days, with 71 deaths. By flood insurance claims since 1978 (OpenFEMA, as of September 8, 2026), Harris County ranks 1st of 2,942 U.S. counties. The 100 counties with the most claims

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $8.8 billion on 170,854 claims filed in Harris County; the most in one year was 49,788 in 2017. Claims count insured losses only: uninsured flood damage is not in this file.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims, as of September 8, 2026; claims by year of loss, payments in the dollars of the year paid. OpenFEMA dataset page.

FEMA's modeled risk for Harris County

FEMA's National Risk Index rates Harris County Very High overall, with an expected annual loss of $2.2 billion. These are FEMA's model estimates of future loss from 18 hazards, not a count of what happened; they can differ from the record above.

Source: FEMA National Risk Index, county table, December 2025 release. FEMA's National Risk Index map.

Counties that share a border with Harris County

1. Harris County 2,111
2. Galveston County 832
3. Brazoria County 654
4. Montgomery County 641
5. Fort Bend County 499
6. Liberty County 420
7. Chambers County 279
8. Waller County 204

Source: U.S. Census Bureau county adjacency file; NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records since 1950. The Census Bureau's adjacency file.

Next

• Tornadoes in TexasEvery Texas tornado since 1950 and the counties with the most per square mile
• Severe thunderstorm wind in TexasThe state's severe thunderstorm wind events, by county, year and month
• The Texas recordEvery hazard in the state, its deadliest events and its federal declarations
• FEMA's risk rating for each hazard in Harris CountyThe hazard risk calculator: 18 hazards beside the county's record
• Download Harris County's FEMA declarations (CSV)41 rows: every declaration that named the county, for your own analysis