Rio Hondo, Texas
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Rio Hondo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78583. The Survey maps it on the Rio Hondo quadrangle. 2,021 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 26 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRio Hondo fell from 2,356 to 2,021 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 | 2,356 | |
| 2020 | 2,021 | -335 (-14%) |
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 Rio Hondo quadrangle1:24000
- 1932 USGS Rio Hondo quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Rio Hondo quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
25 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Rio Hondo between 1996 and 2019, burning about 247 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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/undetermined | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 July 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | REYNOLDS |
| 1 July 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | 345 |
| 8 June 2006 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 22 June 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 22 June 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 2 May 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.2 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | EBONY |
| 9 April 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 9 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 acres | South Texas Refuge Complex | REYNOLDS |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
14 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rio Hondo in 14 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 6 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rio Hondo | $100,000 | A storm survey conducted by NWS personal found wind damage consistent with wind gusts of 60 to 70 mph. Several softwood trees were found with broke branches from Rio Hondo to about 1.5 miles east of Rio Hondo along General Brant Road. There were also several buildings with damage, including loss of wood or metal roof panels on some outbuildings and mobile homes. This includes most of an aluminum roofing covering two adjacent single-wide mobile homes blew off. At least two of these pieces were blown across adjacent State Highway 106. |
| July 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Rio Hondo | $30,000 | Short-lived tornado was reported by the general public. Completed damage assessment confirmed destruction to a mobile home by the tornado. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Rio Hondo | $15,000 | Measured hail report of 3.01 inches via social media. Hail broke windshield at residence with other windshields broken in neighborhood. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Rio Hondo | $10,000 | Rio Hondo Police reported baseball size hail. Windshields of four vehicles in possession of the city of Rio Hondo broken due to hail. Unknown roof damage was also likely; details and damage estimates will be provided as information is received. |
| May 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Rio Hondo | $10,000 | Fire and Rescue reported a brief tornado with roof damage east of Rio Hondo |
| April 2017 | Hail | Rio Hondo | - | Tennis ball size hail reported via social media. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Rio Hondo | - | Large hail was reported by the Rio Hondo Fire Department. |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rio Hondo | - | Wind gusts to 60 mph were reported at Camp Perry |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rio Hondo | - | Three inch diameter tree limbs reported snapped northeast of Rio Hondo |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rio Hondo | - | Storm spotter reported wind gusts to 60 mph with thunderstorm |
| May 2000 | Tornado (F0) | Rio Hondo | - | A National Weather Service storm survey team confirmed that a F0 tornado touched down briefly on a farmer's home at the intersection of FM2925 and Jaurez Road. Moderate damage to the property's roof and back fence occurred. A cyclonic pattern was observed in the debris field. Shingles from the roof were strewn into the canopy of the trees in the front yard. |
| April 2003 | Hail | Rio Hondo | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Hail | Rio Hondo | - | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rio Hondo | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lopez Colonia | 0.3 miles | 13 | |
| Jones Addition Colonia | 0.3 miles | 13 | |
| West Addition Colonia | 0.3 miles | 13 | |
| Tatum Addition Colonia | 0.4 miles | 13 | |
| Bullis Addition Colonia | 1.0 miles | 13 | |
| Laguna Escondida Heights Number 2 Colonia | 1.5 miles | 11 | |
| Laguna Escondida Colonia | 2.5 miles | 11 | |
| Port Harlingen | 2.7 miles | 13 |
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 Rio Hondo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q979206 | 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 1345245. 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.







