Balsora, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Bridgeport census division. It lies in ZIP code area 76426. The Survey maps it on the Boonsville quadrangle.

Balsora within Wise County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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.

1954 USGS Sherman quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1958 USGS Sherman quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Boonsville quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
1985 USGS Denton quadrangle1:100000
1991 USGS Denton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

180 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 180 fires within 5 miles of Balsora between 2005 and 2020, burning about 2,946 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 9 were 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/undetermined	75
Debris and open burning	49
Equipment and vehicle use	28
Smoking	11
Arson/incendiarism	9
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Natural	3
Recreation and ceremony	1
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

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

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
5 September 2010	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	PR 3512 FIRE
22 September 2011	Natural	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	LIGHTNING NEVER STRIKES TWICE...
22 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	...IN THE SAME SPOT.
19 September 2011	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	5572 920 F.I.
19 September 2006	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
15 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	F250 REMAINS
11 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	32 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	MARTIN DAIRY FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Wise County

Storms near this place

10 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balsora in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2026: 5 hail, 3 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2015	Tornado (EF1)	Balsora	$300,000	A National Weather Service damage survey crew found tornado damage along a two and a half mile path across western Wise County. The tornado began on the west side of Farm to Market Road 920, west of the Balsora community. As the tornado moved eastward, several homes, mobile homes, and farm buildings were damaged or destroyed. The most significant damage was done to a mobile home, where the roof was completely taken off.
May 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Balsora	$80,000	A National Weather Service damage survey team found evidence of a weak tornado to the south of the city of Runaway Bay. This was the first of two tornadoes in the city. This one produced tree damage on the southwest side of Runaway Bay, before damaging approximately ten roofs on the south side of US 380. The tornado continued southeast, damaging farm buildings to the southeast of Lake Bridgeport.
April 2026	Hail	Balsora	-	Report of 1.25 inch hail from mPING.
April 2023	Hail	Balsora	-	A public report indicated quarter sized hail near Runaway Bay.
February 2022	Hail	Balsora	-	Quarter sized hail was reported 4 miles west of Cottondale.
March 2017	Hail	Balsora	-	A social media report indicated half-dollar sized hail approximately 3 miles south of Runaway Bay, TX.
May 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Balsora	-	A National Weather Service damage survey crew determined a tornado caused damage over four miles across eastern Jack and far western Wise Counties. The tornado produced extensive tree damage across farm and ranch land, but did produce damage to three homes, and several buildings on one farm.
March 2013	Hail	Balsora	-	Penny sized hail was reported.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Balsora	-	A 70 MPH wind gust was measured near Boonsville.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Balsora	-	Cars were blown off the road near Balsora.

Every storm recorded in Wise 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Willow Point	3.3 miles	8
Boonsville	3.4 miles	9
Runaway Bay	3.8 miles	8
Rickels	4.8 miles	10
Draco	5.8 miles	9
Lake Bridgeport	6.4 miles	10
Bridgeport	8.3 miles	10
Cottondale	8.5 miles	9

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1377971. 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.