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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.

Rio Hondo within Cameron County

Population over time

2 figures

Rio 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,356
20202,021-335 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 13 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

25 since 1996

Regional 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/undetermined13
Debris and open burning9
Arson/incendiarism1
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
11 July 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Texas Refuge ComplexREYNOLDS
1 July 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresSouth Texas Refuge Complex345
8 June 2006Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
22 June 2006Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
22 June 2006Equipment and vehicle use10 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
2 May 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.2 acresSouth Texas Refuge ComplexEBONY
9 April 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE
9 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined35 acresSouth Texas Refuge ComplexREYNOLDS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cameron County

Storms near this place

14 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2023Thunderstorm WindRio Hondo$100,000A 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 2005Tornado (F0)Rio Hondo$30,000Short-lived tornado was reported by the general public. Completed damage assessment confirmed destruction to a mobile home by the tornado.
April 2017HailRio Hondo$15,000Measured hail report of 3.01 inches via social media. Hail broke windshield at residence with other windshields broken in neighborhood.
April 2017HailRio Hondo$10,000Rio 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 2002Tornado (F0)Rio Hondo$10,000Fire and Rescue reported a brief tornado with roof damage east of Rio Hondo
April 2017HailRio Hondo-Tennis ball size hail reported via social media.
May 2006HailRio Hondo-Large hail was reported by the Rio Hondo Fire Department.
May 2002Thunderstorm WindRio Hondo-Wind gusts to 60 mph were reported at Camp Perry
May 2002Thunderstorm WindRio Hondo-Three inch diameter tree limbs reported snapped northeast of Rio Hondo
May 2002Thunderstorm WindRio Hondo-Storm spotter reported wind gusts to 60 mph with thunderstorm
May 2000Tornado (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 2003HailRio Hondo-no account filed
February 1998HailRio Hondo-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindRio Hondo-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cameron 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
Lopez Colonia0.3 miles13
Jones Addition Colonia0.3 miles13
West Addition Colonia0.3 miles13
Tatum Addition Colonia0.4 miles13
Bullis Addition Colonia1.0 miles13
Laguna Escondida Heights Number 2 Colonia1.5 miles11
Laguna Escondida Colonia2.5 miles11
Port Harlingen2.7 miles13

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 HondoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q979206The 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.