Barstow, Texas
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Barstow-Pyote census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79719. The Survey maps it on the Pecos East quadrangle. 265 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,566 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBarstow fell from 349 to 265 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 349 | |
| 2020 | 265 | -84 (-24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1931 USGS Barstow quadrangle1:125000
- 1954 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Pecos East quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
2 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Barstow between 2007 and 2011, burning about 6 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 August 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 20 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 34 |
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Barstow: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barstow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
22 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Barstow in 22 storm reports between 2002 and 2025: 10 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 lightning, 2 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2020 | Tornado (EF1) | Barstow | $50,000 | A thunderstorm developed over western Reeves County and moved northeast into Ward County. It produced a bowl-shaped tornado just north of Barstow. The tornado developed about a mile northwest of Barstow at the intersection of County Road 140 and 145 and only lasted for about a minute. Power flashes were reported along with damage to northern portions of Barstow. The tornado snapped a utility pole before moving and hitting an RV park. Damage at the park included flipping a trailer on its side, damaging a pickup truck, and causing light damage to three other trailers. Wind speeds were estimated at 100 mph from the damage observed by the NWS survey team which helped classify the tornado as an EF-1. In addition to the damage observed by the survey team, spotters and the public provided visual evidence that a tornado occurred. The path length of the tornado was 0.47 miles and the path width was 20 yards. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate. |
| May 2005 | Lightning | Barstow | $35,000 | A lightning strike sparked an early morning residential fire in Barstow. No injuries were reported. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | $20,000 | The Pecos Free Press in Pecos reported that thunderstorm winds damaged several transmission poles and downed utility lines just south of Barstow. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | $10,000 | Severe thunderstorm winds blew the roof off of a barn in Barstow. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds ripped a roof off of a storage building. |
| June 2003 | Lightning | Barstow | $5,000 | Lightning struck a 300 foot radio antenna, knocking an FM radio station off the air. Some of the station's equipment was destroyed. |
| March 2019 | Hail | Barstow | $4,000 | A thunderstorm moved across Ward County and produced baseball sized hail six miles north of Pecos. The hail destroyed a vehicle. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | $3,000 | A thunderstorm moved across Ward County and produced wind damage in Barstow. There were powerlines down in Barstow. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | $2,000 | The Pecos Free Press newspaper in Pecos reported that thunderstorm winds knocked down a concrete wall and blew a pitched roof off of a picnic table area at Community Center Park in Barstow. Other damage in Barstow included toppled trees and minor roof damage. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | - | The UPR Mesonet station UR222 2.8 NE Pecos recorded a 60 mph wind gust. |
| April 2025 | Hail | Barstow | - | Received a public report of quarter size hail in Barstow. Time is estimated from radar. |
| March 2007 | Flash Flood | Barstow | - | One and a half feet of water flowing over Interstate 20 service roads and bar ditches near Barstow. Six to eight inches of water flowed across roads in Monahans. |
| March 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barstow | - | The Texas Department of Public Safety reported several 60 mph wind gusts just east of Barstow. |
| October 2006 | Hail | Barstow | - | Hail the size of quarters fell on Farm to Market route 516 just northwest of Barstow. |
| April 2004 | Flash Flood | Barstow | - | A thunderstorm moving out of Pecos County produced flooding over portions of Ward County during the morning of Sunday, April 4th. Several streets were flooded in the town of Barstow. Flooding was also reported at the intersection of Interstate 20 and Farm to Market Road 1219 and along a four mile stretch southward along Farm to Market Road 1219. |
| June 2002 | Hail | Barstow | - | Hail up to the size of golfballs fell in Barstow for 15 minutes. |
| May 2021 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Barstow | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pyote | 15.1 miles | 8 | |
| Three Corner Windmill | 21.4 miles | 7 | |
| Wickett | 22.1 miles | 8 | |
| Thorntonville | 26.4 miles | 8 | |
| Monahans | 28.1 miles | 8 | |
| Royalty | 28.6 miles | 9 | |
| Grandfalls | 29.9 miles | 9 |
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 Barstow | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q977092 | The 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 1351550. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.




