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Tenaha, Texas

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Tenaha-Joaquin census division. It lies in ZIP code area 75974. The Survey maps it on the Tenaha East quadrangle. 989 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 348 feet above sea level.

Tenaha within Shelby County

Population over time

2 figures

Tenaha fell from 1,160 to 989 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
20101,160
2020989-171 (-15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

71 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 71 fires within 5 miles of Tenaha between 1992 and 2020, burning about 512 acres in total. 6 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
Debris and open burning35
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Natural6
Equipment and vehicle use6
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Fireworks1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Recreation and ceremony1
Smoking1
Other causes1

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
9 September 2011Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceHENDERSON - 534
30 September 2016Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service6164
24 September 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
15 September 2005Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
12 September 1993Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
1 September 1995Debris and open burning6.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
9 August 2009Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWOODS 8-9-09
5 August 2013Natural2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Service7079

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this place

21 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tenaha in 21 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 10 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 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
February 1998Thunderstorm WindTenaha$8,000,000Numerous reports of downed trees and power lines throughout the area. Every customer in the area lost power for several days. Property damage in the region resulted climbed to over 1 million dollars while over 6 million dollars damaged occurred in private timber loss.
November 1994Thunderstorm WindTenaha$5,000Trees were blown down by high winds.
March 1993HailTenaha$5,000Hail damaged roofs and several cars. Windshields were broken out of a few.
July 2010LightningTenaha$100A lightning strike caused trees to catch fire in the Tenaha, Texas area.
March 2025HailTenaha-Quarter size hail reported at a convenience store in Tenaha.
March 2023HailTenaha-Golf ball size hail reported near Tenaha.
April 2018HailTenaha-Quarter size hail fell just east of Tenaha.
April 2018HailTenaha-A picture posted to Twitter showed large hail slightly larger than golfballs that fell in Tenaha.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindTenaha-Trees were downed in Tenaha, Texas.
November 2010HailTenaha-Nickel to quarter size hail fell in Tenaha, Texas.
March 2005HailTenaha-Hail fell at the intersection of US Highway 59 and County Rd. 4648.
May 2000Tornado (F1)Tenaha-Tornado occurred in all wooded and farmland area void of structures. Numerous pine and oak trees snapped and pushed over.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindTenaha-Numerous large trees down across Hwy 7.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindTenaha-Numerous trees down across Hwy 947.
August 1997Flash FloodTenaha-Excessive rains of over one foot in 24 hours led to the closure of Hwy 96 for nearly 200 yards between Center and Tenaha. Four to five feet of water was across the Hwy.
April 2006HailTenaha-no account filed
May 2002HailTenaha-no account filed
March 1997Flash FloodTenaha-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindTenaha-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindTenaha-no account filed
April 1993HailTenaha-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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
Saxet3.3 miles11
Tennessee4.0 miles11
Paxton4.3 miles12
Bobo4.5 miles11
Flat Fork4.7 miles12
Meldrum5.1 miles11
Folsom6.4 miles11
North Jericho7.3 miles12

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 TenahaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q969628The 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 1369702. 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.