Lyford, Texas
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Lyford census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78569. The Survey maps it on the Raymondville quadrangle. 2,249 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 33 feet above sea level.
On record in Lyford
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Old Lyford High Schoollisted 1985
Population over time
3 figuresLyford grew from 1,973 to 2,249 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1,973 | |
| 2010 | 2,611 | +638 (+32%) |
| 2020 | 2,249 | -362 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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.
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Raymondville quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
61 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 61 fires within 5 miles of Lyford between 2002 and 2020, burning about 1,484 acres in total. None 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 | 35 |
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 7 August 2011 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 29 August 2009 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 27 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 16 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | LARGE FRONTAGE GRASS FIRE |
| 10 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | FRONTAGE FIRE |
| 10 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 10 August 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | NATURAL VEGITATION |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
11 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lyford in 11 storm reports between 1997 and 2026: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 tornado, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lyford | $3,000 | A couple of utility poles were reported down along FM 491, approximately one mile west of Business 77. |
| September 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lyford | $1,000 | Wind casued extensive tree damage. |
| March 2026 | Tornado (EFU) | Lyford | - | KRGV Channel 5 news shared a video of a landspout tornado near East FM 1018, in the Lyford area. Location estimated from distance from where the video was taken. |
| March 2025 | Flash Flood | Lyford | - | Torrential rainfall with estimated totals ranging from 6 to 12 inches affected southern/southwestern Willacy County during the mid to late evening of March 27, with several water rescues reported in Sebastian along the Cameron County line. Additional flooding with water depths on roads likely at or near 3 feet occurred northward to Lyford and perhaps the outskirts of Raymondville, and also east to FM 1420 between Santa Monica and Willamar. ||An unknown number of structures had some flooding. Countywide damage statistics will be available later in 2025. |
| March 2025 | Flood | Lyford | - | The Texas Department of Transportation continued to report flooding along the frontage road near Sebastian well into March 28th, with additional flooding noted by emergency management/law enforcement along Farm-to-Market and County roads in the southern portion of the county. Flooding continued at homes in the Sebastian area where drainage backups remained.||There was an unknown amount of water remaining in the North Floodway of the International Boundary and Water Commission's Flood Control Project. Further details for Willacy County flooding well after the rains ended will be provided through updates. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lyford | - | Local law enforcement reported trees down in the city of Lyford. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Lyford | - | Public reported golf ball size hail on Highway 77 near Lyford. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Lyford | - | Willacy County emergency manager reported golfball size hail 2 miles south of Raymondville. |
| December 2009 | Heavy Rain | Lyford | - | Rain, heavy at times during the daylight hours of the 16th, accumulated an estimated 1 1/2 to 2 inches between 6 AM and 6 PM in along the Highway 77 corridor of Willacy County. High standing water occurred in these areas. Event totals in Willacy County included 3.33 inches in Raymondville, and 2.92 inches in Port Mansfield. |
| November 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Lyford | - | A resident first noticed a tornado over an open field approximately 1-2 miles east of U.S. Highway 77 just south of FM 491. The tornado moved westward toward U.S. Highway 77 and lifted as it approached the Highway, then dissipated. The tornado was on the ground approximately 3 to 5 minutes. No damage was reported. |
| April 2003 | Hail | Lyford | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lyford South Colonia | 0.9 miles | 9 | |
| Bausell and Ellis Colonia | 1.4 miles | 9 | |
| Hugh Terry Colonia | 2.7 miles | 13 | |
| S and C Colonia | 3.3 miles | 13 | |
| Raymondville Tract Number 1 Colonia | 3.7 miles | 9 | |
| Zapata Ranch | 4.3 miles | 13 | |
| Zapata Ranch Colonia | 4.4 miles | 13 | |
| Raymondville | 4.8 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 Lyford | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q978703 | 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 1340749. 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.





