Combes, Texas
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Harlingen-San Benito census division. The Survey maps it on the Harlingen quadrangle. 2,999 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 46 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCombes grew from 2,895 to 2,999 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 | 2,895 | |
| 2020 | 2,999 | +104 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 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.
- 1929 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:24000
- 1932 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
50 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 50 fires within 5 miles of Combes between 1993 and 2018, burning about 276 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 | 29 |
| Debris and open burning | 13 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | PRIMERA COMMAND |
| 13 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | WILCOX COMMAND |
| 1 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | PALOMA BLANCA COMMAND |
| 3 August 1993 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | TIOCANO2 |
| 26 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | WILCOX COMMAND |
| 5 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | WILSON COMMAND |
| 4 July 2005 | Debris and open burning | 35 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | JULY 4TH |
| 27 June 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | 73 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
7 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Combes in 7 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 3 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Combes | $15,000 | Microburst produced 60 mph winds that removed the roof from an old outbuilding roof, removed a new tin roof from an outdoor shed, as well as broken numerous tree limbs from mesquite, cottonwood, sycamore, and poplar trees. |
| April 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Combes | $10,000 | The squall line that originally developed in Starr and Zapata County weakened a bit over western and central Hidalgo County, still producing wind gusts up to 53 mph. The central part of the line re-intensified over eastern Hidalgo County, and as it reached Cameron County began producing several reports of wind damage as well as a peak wind gust to 74 mph at Valley International Airport in Harlingen (815 AM CST). Additional damage reports received included:||*Multiple trees down between Harlingen and Combes on US Highway 77/Interstate 69E (815 AM CST)||Reports were received from ASOS and Law Enforcement. |
| July 2024 | Tornado (EFU) | Combes | - | City of Combes shared a picture of a landspout northeast of Woods Road just before 3 PM CDT. Radar estimated time and location. |
| November 2013 | Heavy Rain | Combes | - | More than 5 inches of rain fell across portions of Harlingen during a 5 hour period causing localized flooding of low lying and poor drainage spots. Local law enforcement reported 5 to 6 inches of water in Primera and noted that water was approaching homes of residents. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Combes | - | Texas DPS reported water covering U.S. Highway 77 in Combes. |
| August 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Combes | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Combes | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combes Colonia | 0.6 miles | 13 | |
| Eggers Colonia | 1.2 miles | 13 | |
| Los Ranchitos Colonia | 1.8 miles | 13 | |
| Bonnaville Terrace Colonia | 1.8 miles | 13 | |
| Avondale | 1.9 miles | 13 | |
| Lasana | 1.9 miles | 11 | |
| Primera | 2.0 miles | 13 | |
| Lasana Colonia | 2.1 miles | 11 |
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 Combes | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q970551 | 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 1333181. 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.







