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Grandfalls, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Grandfalls census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79742. The Survey maps it on the Grandfalls quadrangle. 340 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,434 feet above sea level.

Grandfalls within Ward County

Population over time

3 figures

Grandfalls fell from 391 to 340 between 2000 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
2000391
2010360-31 (-8%)
2020340-20 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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.

Fires near this place

3 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Grandfalls between 2008 and 2009, burning about 16,110 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/undetermined2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
24 May 2009Power generation/transmission/distribution100 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceRESERVIOR
24 May 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
10 April 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined16,000 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceELLISON FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ward County

Storms near this place

39 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Grandfalls in 39 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 28 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 1997LightningGrandfalls1 hurtA 16 year old male received an indirect lightning strike. He was taken to Ward Memorial Hospital in Monahans and transferred to Odessa Medical Center for testing, and was released late that night. The boy and his mother were walking across their porch leaving the house when lightning struck a metal pipe along the side of the house. The boy was struck in the head by a glancing blow from the bolt, knocked to the ground, but sustained no burns. He was dazed but never lost consciousness; he said he remembered feeling the shock as the bolt went through his body. They said the lightning came seemingly from nowhere as all the previous thunder had seemed quite distant. Light rain was falling at the time of the incident.
September 2004Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls$75,000Strong to severe thunderstorms over Pecos County spawned a left moving (anticyclonic) severe storm that rapidly propagated over the town of Grandfalls. Quarter to golfball size hail was reported in addition to damaging winds. Five power poles were snapped along State Route 11 just southeast of town. In town, an abandon mobile home was rolled by the winds and destroyed while the roof of another mobile home in the southwest portions of the community was blown onto a nearby pickup truck. Several trees were uprooted and a historic church also sustained serious roof damage.A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service concluded that the severe winds that produced the damage was uniform in direction, blowing debris from the southwest to the northeast. The damage swath covered an area three miles wide. These observations were consistent with the occurrence of a large downburst, or macroburst.
September 2004HailGrandfalls$25,000Law enforcement officials reported quarter to golfball size hail in Grandfalls. Minor damage to vehicles was reported.
October 2005Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls$15,000Thunderstorm winds downed three power poles, two of which were on Farm to Market Road 11, three miles east of Grandfalls. Another pole was on Farm to Market Road 872, half a mile south of that road's intersection with Farm to Market Road 11.
May 2008HailGrandfalls$10,000no account filed
June 2003Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls$2,000A large tree was blown down. In addition, an empty but very large tank on the city's water tower was moved a small distance.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls$1,000A thunderstorm moved across Ward County and produced wind damage in Grandfalls. The winds caused a 20 foot tree to split in half. The cost of damage is a very rough estimate.
May 2023HailGrandfalls-Public photo showing golf ball-sized hail. Time estimated by radar.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls-A thunderstorm moved across Ward County, and the public estimated that 50 to 60 mph winds shook their mobile home violently. No damage was reported.
March 2007HailGrandfalls-The Ward County Sheriff's Office reported penny to nickel size hail falling at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 1219 and 1776. This hail fell in a swath from this intersection southeast to Grandfalls.
May 2006HailGrandfalls-Quarter to golfball size hail fell in Grandfalls.
June 2005Flash FloodGrandfalls-The same slow moving severe storm that produced large hail south of Monahans resulted in localized flash flooding as prolonged heavy rainfall occurred over several highways in southern Ward County. Initial reports indicated flash flooding along a low water crossing on Farm to Market Road 1776. At 18:14 CST, additional flash flooding was reported along Farm to Market Road 1219 just northwest of Grandfalls, where half a foot of water flowed over the driving surface.
June 2005HailGrandfalls-Additional convective development to the south of the initial severe storm intensified and produced nickel to quarter size hail in Grandfalls.
October 2005HailGrandfalls-A trained spotter reported nickel to quarter size hail, two inches deep along Texas Highway 18 north of Grandfalls.
August 2003Flash FloodGrandfalls-Up to two feet of water covered several roadways in the Grandfalls vicinity. Farm to Market Road 1776 northwest of Grandfalls was closed due to high water. In addition, the intersection of Highways 329 and 18 was impassable. Flash flooding also resulted in flowing water in numerous city streets.
April 1993Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls-A dry microburst produced wind gusts to 60 mph just southwest of Grandfalls, according to the Grandfalls Fire Department.
June 2021HailGrandfalls-no account filed
May 2021HailGrandfalls-no account filed
March 2019HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2016HailGrandfalls-no account filed
September 2016HailGrandfalls-no account filed
April 2012HailGrandfalls-no account filed
May 2010HailGrandfalls-no account filed
May 2010HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2010HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2010HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2009HailGrandfalls-no account filed
March 2007HailGrandfalls-no account filed
March 2007HailGrandfalls-no account filed
May 2007HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2003HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2003Thunderstorm WindGrandfalls-no account filed
June 2003HailGrandfalls-no account filed
October 2002HailGrandfalls-no account filed
May 2000Flash FloodGrandfalls-no account filed
May 1999HailGrandfalls-no account filed
June 1996HailGrandfalls-no account filed
September 1996HailGrandfalls-no account filed
October 1995HailGrandfalls-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ward 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
Royalty2.4 miles9
Thorntonville17.2 miles8
Monahans17.7 miles8
Wickett17.8 miles8
Pyote19.8 miles8
Three Corner Windmill23.2 miles7
Barstow29.9 miles9

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 GrandfallsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q976340The 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 1358254. 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.