Red Oak, Texas

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Waxahachie census division. It lies in ZIP code area 75154. It stands on Little Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lancaster quadrangle. 14,222 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 607 feet above sea level.

Red Oak within Ellis County

Population over time

2 figures

Red Oak grew from 10,769 to 14,222 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	10,769
2020	14,222	+3,453 (+32%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 19 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.

1891 USGS Dallas quadrangle1:125000
1893 USGS Dallas quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
1954 USGS Dallas quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1958 USGS Dallas quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
1986 USGS Dallas quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings

Fires near this place

68 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 68 fires within 5 miles of Red Oak between 2005 and 2018, burning about 311 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 4 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	30
Debris and open burning	18
Equipment and vehicle use	7
Arson/incendiarism	4
Smoking	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Recreation and ceremony	2
Natural	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
4 September 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	E. HIGHLAND ROAD
27 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	128 E. OVILLA RD
7 August 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	109 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	OVILLA ROAD
1 August 2011	Power generation/transmission/distribution	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	MAIN ST. FIRE
5 July 2010	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	RING RD
25 July 2009	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	RING ROAD
24 July 2009	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	1105 MAREE
22 July 2012	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	1500 FM 664-2

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ellis County

Storms near this place

47 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Red Oak in 47 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 24 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 9 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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
November 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	$5,000,000	High winds damaged or destroyed 82 homes and 19 businesses. Damage was estimated at $3 million.
February 1993	Tornado (F1)	Red Oak	$500,000	Eight houses were damaged and power lines were knocked down.
May 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	$100,000	Widespread wind damaged was caused by thunderstorms.
August 2014	Lightning	Red Oak	$37,000	The local newspaper reported lightning started a fire at a home on Autumn Trail in Red Oak. The fire was contained to the attic.
September 2023	Hail	Red Oak	$30,000	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Red Oak	$25,000	A report of hail slightly larger than tennis ball size was received via social media.
September 2007	Flash Flood	Red Oak	$20,000	Shawnee Road was flooded where it crosses Red Oak Creek. Interstate 35 east was also flooded. Several vehicles had to be pulled out of high water.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	$15,000	Power poles, trees, and fences blown down in Oak Leaf.
April 2002	Lightning	Red Oak	$10,000	A barn was destroyed by a lightning-started fire.
May 2024	Flash Flood	Red Oak	$6,000	A trained spotter reported a vehicle water rescue at the intersection of Shawnee Road and Bells Chapel Road, just south of Red Oak, TX.
April 1999	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	$5,000	A food mart was damaged by thunderstorm winds.
June 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	$3,000	Thunderstorm winds downed trees, damaging a fence and a carport.
May 2017	Hail	Red Oak	$1,000	Social Media reported quarter size hail in Red Oak.
May 2017	Hail	Red Oak	$1,000	Amateur Radio reported quarter size hail in the city of Red Oak.
October 2015	Flash Flood	Red Oak	$1,000	Stainback Rd. was flooded at the S curve (near Red Oak).
January 2025	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	Emergency management reported that both north and south bound lanes of the Interstate 35 access roads were closed due to flooding north of Highway 77 near Red Oak.
June 2023	Hail	Red Oak	-	Report received via mPING.
June 2023	Hail	Red Oak	-	Broadcast media received a video of ping pong ball size hail in Red Oak.
May 2020	Hail	Red Oak	-	A social media report indicated quarter sized hail in the city of Red Oak, TX.
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	-	Emergency management reported trees down in the city of Red Oak, TX.
May 2015	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	A trained spotter reported that low water crossings were flooded in and near the town of Red Oak, TX.
October 2014	Hail	Red Oak	-	Quarter-sized hail was reported by amateur radio in Pecan Hill, TX.
March 2013	Hail	Red Oak	-	Amateur radio operators reported quarter sized hail in Red Oak.
April 2012	Hail	Red Oak	-	Quarter sized hail was reported in Red Oak.
April 2012	Hail	Red Oak	-	Quarter sized hail was reported in Red Oak.
May 2011	Hail	Red Oak	-	Quarter sized hail fell near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Ovilla Road.
September 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	-	A 60 MPH wind gust was measured in Red Oak.
March 2008	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	A mobile home park was evacuated near Red Oak due to floodwaters.
April 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	-	A 60 MPH wind gust was reported in Red Oak and Ovilla.
April 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	-	Near Interstate 35 and Red Oak Boulevard.
August 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Red Oak	-	Large tree limbs blown down.
June 2004	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	Numerous farm to market and county roads were barricaded due to high water.
December 1998	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	Numerous streets were flooded.
April 1995	Hail	Red Oak	-	Trees were blown down and outbuildings were destroyed by high winds.
April 1994	Tornado (F0)	Red Oak	-	A brief tornado touchdown was reported.
May 2016	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
March 2016	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
March 2014	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
March 2014	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
April 2011	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
April 2008	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
October 2001	Flash Flood	Red Oak	-	no account filed
May 1995	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
January 1995	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed
October 1993	Hail	Red Oak	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ellis 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
Elva	0.8 miles	19
Pecan Hill	2.4 miles	10
Oak Leaf	2.7 miles	19
Sterrett	3.3 miles	10
Rockett	3.9 miles	10
Ovilla	4.4 miles	21
Ferris	7.4 miles	18
Trumbull	7.6 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 Red Oak	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q979142	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 1344940. 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.