Simms, Texas

6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Hereford West census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79045. The Survey maps it on the Simms quadrangle.

Simms within Deaf Smith County

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 6 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.

1954 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1958 USGS Tucumcari quadrangle1:250000
1966 USGS Simms quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Vega quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

1 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Simms in 2008, burning about 2 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
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
24 April 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Deaf Smith County

Storms near this place

28 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Simms in 28 storm reports between 2008 and 2025: 21 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 flood, 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 2025	Tornado (EF0)	Simms	$45,000	Several visuals from storm spotters indicated that funnel clouds and perhaps brief touchdowns occurred before this tornado from the same supercell as it crossed western Deaf Smith County. However, this tornado did overturn a couple of pivots south of \|County Road 27 and east of Highway 214. This appears to have been the only damage noted from this tornado so the exact length of the track is unknown due to the lack of damage indicators. The estimated wind speed from this tornado was 85mph.
August 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Simms	$30,000	A trained spotter reported that a metal granary was blown about seventy-five yards north of where it was originally located. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.
June 2025	Flood	Simms	$1,000	There were some locations where three to five inches of moving water accumulated on the road. Other isolated spots had one to two inches. Ditches were full in several spots and fields were flooded.
May 2023	Hail	Simms	-	Light hail accumulation occurred at the time or report.
April 2019	Hail	Simms	-	Accumulating hail reported just west of Simms area.
October 2019	Flash Flood	Simms	-	A water rescue took place along FM 1412 west of US Highway 385 near a creek bed. A motorist attempted to drive through fast flowing water. The vehicle was swept about 100 feet and off the road into a creek. The person was rescued. FM 1412 was closed due to high water approximately 3 miles west of US Highway 385.
October 2019	Flood	Simms	-	Several roads were reported to be flooded south of Adrian and south of Vega. The time of the report is estimated.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Mostly dime to nickel size hail fell at this location with a few stones up to quarter size.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Pea to penny size hail fell 3 miles west-southwest of Simms.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Ping pong ball size hail occurred 1 mile east-southeast of Simms.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Half dollar to hen egg size hail fell 2 miles east of Simms.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Hail at least the size of half dollars covered the road 8 miles northeast of Simms.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Two inch diameter hail was measured with a tape measure 8 miles northeast of Simms.
May 2016	Hail	Simms	-	Nickel to quarter size hail occurred 8 miles northeast of Simms.
May 2013	Heavy Rain	Simms	-	The Emergency Manager for Deaf Smith County reported that hail up to the size of tennis balls (2.00 inches) was covering the ground and roadways. The hail clogged drainage systems which caused fields along the road to become flooded. The flood waters did not impact the roads and quickly receded once the drainage systems unclogged.
May 2013	Hail	Simms	-	A supercell thunderstorm that developed along a retreating dryline in Deaf Smith and Oldham Counties tracked to the northeast across the southern Texas Panhandle. A storm chaser reported ping pong ball size hail 15 miles south of Adrian (Deaf Smith County). The supercell continued traveling in a northeastern direction which took it out of the county shortly after 10 pm. No injuries were relayed with this report.
May 2013	Hail	Simms	-	A supercell thunderstorm that developed along a retreating dryline in Deaf Smith and Oldham Counties tracked to the northeast across the southern Texas Panhandle. The Deaf Smith County Emergency Manager reported tennis ball size hail 5 miles east of Simms (Deaf Smith County). The hail clogged drainage systems close to the road and caused some of the fields to flood. The supercell continued traveling in a northeastern direction which took it out of the county shortly after 10 pm. No injuries were relayed with this report.
December 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Simms	-	A line of thunderstorms moved into Oldham County and produced multiple thunderstorm wind gusts across the county. Center pivots used in irrigation were blown over 12 miles to the south-shoutwest of Vega. These winds were estimated to be between 60 mph and 70 mph by radar. At the same location pea size hail was also observed.
April 2009	Hail	Simms	-	The public reported the hail along State Highway 214. The hail began as pea size then increased to quarter size. The hail covered the ground to a depth of a few inches in places. Tree limbs were broken by the hail and birds were killed.
June 2025	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
May 2021	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2019	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2019	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2019	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2017	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
September 2011	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Simms	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Deaf Smith 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
Walcott	11.0 miles	8
Milo Center	14.0 miles	8
Ford	14.4 miles	6
Westway	15.6 miles	9
Bootleg	16.4 miles	8
Hereford	20.4 miles	8
Joel	22.3 miles	8
Glenrio (historical)	22.7 miles	5

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 Simms	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q128800307	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 1380544. 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.