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Balmorhea, Texas

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Balmorhea census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79718. The Survey maps it on the Balmorhea quadrangle. 408 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,196 feet above sea level.

Balmorhea within Reeves County

Population over time

2 figures

Balmorhea fell from 479 to 408 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010479
2020408-71 (-15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

1 since 2020

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Balmorhea in 2020, burning about 14 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined14 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCOTTONWOOD

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Reeves County

Storms near this place

34 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balmorhea in 34 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 21 hail, 6 flash flood, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2022Flash FloodBalmorhea$8,000Heavy rain fell across Reeves County and resulted in flash flooding near Balmorhea. There was a high water rescue. A person in a pickup drove through a low water crossing south of Balmorhea Lake. The pickup and driver were washed 1000 feet downstream. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.
April 2014Thunderstorm WindBalmorhea$5,000A thunderstorm moved across Reeves County and produced wind damage in Balmorhea. There were reports of damage to trees and sheds as well as power outages. The cost of damage is a rough estimate.
May 1994HailBalmorhea$5,000The public reported quarter- to golf ball-size hail in Balmorhea from 1536 CST to 1556 CST.
May 1994HailBalmorhea$5,000The public reported quarter- to golf ball-size hail in Balmorhea from 1536 CST to 1556 CST.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindBalmorhea$2,000A thunderstorm moved across Reeves County and produced wind damage in Balmorhea. There was a large tree down at El Paso Street and State Highway 17. The tree was blocking Highway 17. The cost of damage is a rough estimate.
September 2014Flash FloodBalmorhea$500Heavy rain fell across Reeves County and produced flash flooding near Balmorhea. Portions of State Highway 17 near Balmorhea were closed due to flooding. The amount of damage is unknown so the cost of damage is a very rough estimate.
May 2024HailBalmorhea-Lots of small hail, some of the hail may be slightly larger.
June 2023HailBalmorhea-Ping pong ball-sized hail was observed along I-10 near Balmorhea.
June 2023HailBalmorhea-Two-inch diameter hail was observed on the south side of Balmorhea.
March 2020Tornado (EFU)Balmorhea-A thunderstorm in Reeves County produced a tornado about eight miles west of Mentone. A National Weather Service survey team was unable to locate damage directly caused by the tornado due to poor road networks. Photos provided by the public and emergency management suggested that the tornado was significant, however due to a lack of damage indicators, the survey team was unable to determine a path and intensity. Thus, the tornado was rated an EF-U. It was estimated that the tornado traveled roughly 12 miles before lifting from storm spotter reports and radar signatures. The tornado started in Reeves County and moved east into Loving County. It lifted before reaching Highway 302 and moved just north of Mentone.
May 2015HailBalmorhea-A thunderstorm moved across Reeves County and produced nickel sized hail east of Balmorhea between mile markers 212 and 214 on Interstate 10.
May 2015HailBalmorhea-A thunderstorm moved across Reeves County and produced golf ball sized hail 4 miles north of the US 285/302 intersection along US 285.
April 2012HailBalmorhea-A thunderstorm moved over Reeves County and produced one inch hail in Balmorhea. The hail was reported to be an inch deep, and it lasted for ten minutes.
April 2007HailBalmorhea-Nickel size hail fell in a swath along Texas Highway 17 from the Jeff Davis/Reeves County line to Toyahvale.
May 2007Flash FloodBalmorhea-Flooding occurred over both lanes of I-10 between mile markers 185 and 186 at the Reeves/Jeff Davis County line.
June 2005HailBalmorhea-Quarter size hail was reported five miles north of Interstate 10 along Texas Route 17.
June 2005HailBalmorhea-The first of two severe storms to affect Balmorhea during the early morning hours of the 3rd struck at midnight CST. This storm produced quarter size hail in town, and resulted in no damage.
June 2005HailBalmorhea-Quarter size hail was reported again by local law enforcement officials in Balmorhea at 00:45 CST. Damage did not result from either of the severe storms to strike Balmorhea during the late evening of the 2nd and the early morning of the 3rd.
April 2004HailBalmorhea-Golfball to baseball size hail fell in Balmorhea and also along Farm to Market Road 1450 east of Pecos.Hail was still covering FM 1450 at 915 pm that evening.
April 2004Flash FloodBalmorhea-Flooding was reported along Farm to Market Road 2903 between Toyah and Balmorhea, making the road impassable. Farm to Market Road 869 and State Highway 17 were also closed due to flooding.
April 2004Tornado (F0)Balmorhea-A tornado was observed by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper moving east at ten mph. The tornado moved over rural areas with no damage noted.
June 2004HailBalmorhea-The Reeves County Emergency Manager and the public reported intermittent large hail ranging in size from dimes to golfballs along Interstate 10 from near the Reeves/Jeff Davis County Line to the Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 split.
September 2002Tornado (F0)Balmorhea-A truck driver traveling on Interstate 10 in western Reeves County reported and photographed a tornado. The tornado was located just north of the interstate...a few miles east of the Interstate 10 and Interstate 20 junction.
June 1999Flash FloodBalmorhea-Rain from a series of storms added to cause minor flooding in Balmorhea.
May 1994HailBalmorhea-The public reported quarter- to golf ball-size hail in Balmorhea from 1536 CST to 1556 CST.
August 1993Thunderstorm WindBalmorhea-A Skywarn spotter reported winds of 60 mph or greater in extreme southern Reeves County.
May 2023HailBalmorhea-no account filed
May 2015HailBalmorhea-no account filed
April 2012HailBalmorhea-no account filed
April 2012HailBalmorhea-no account filed
June 2007HailBalmorhea-no account filed
July 2002Thunderstorm WindBalmorhea-no account filed
August 1996Flash FloodBalmorhea-no account filed
August 1996HailBalmorhea-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Reeves County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Pueblo Vitoria2.1 miles12
Toyahvale3.6 miles12
Saragosa5.2 miles9
Cuatro Caminos11.9 miles12
Verhalen12.7 miles9
Collier15.3 miles9
Hoban17.0 miles9
Gozar18.6 miles8

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on BalmorheaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q980320The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1351473. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.