Toyah, Texas

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1921 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Pecos census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79785. It lies near San Martine Draw. The Survey maps it on the Toyah quadrangle. 61 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,913 feet above sea level.

Toyah within Reeves County

Population over time

2 figures

Toyah fell from 90 to 61 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	90
2020	61	-29 (-32%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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.

1921 USGS Toyah quadrangle1:125000
1954 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1957 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:250000
1970 USGS Toyah quadrangle1:24000
1986 USGS Pecos quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Fires near this place

1 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Toyah in 2007, burning about 1 acre 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
27 June 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named

Every fire recorded in Reeves County

Storms near this place

33 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Toyah in 33 storm reports between 1994 and 2019: 22 hail, 7 flash flood, 3 thunderstorm wind, 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2004	Flash Flood	Toyah	$2,500,000	A bridge along Interstate 20 just east-northeast of Toyah over the normally dry Salt Draw failed Sunday evening. This failure was the result of fast-moving flood waters originating from previous heavy rainfall over the Davis Mountains. Hydrologists also credited a residual flow of water through the draw from the Toyah dike break early Sunday for contributing to the gradual process that caused the bridge to collapse. Authorities said that advance warning of additional runoff and flooding allowed the interstate to be closed to both eastbound and westbound traffic at the first sign of danger to the bridge. A state official for the Texas Department of Transportation said that 86 feet of roadway in the eastbound lanes fell into the river, and that additional 40-foot segments on each side of the river were also damaged. On the westbound side, one of the upright supports holding the bridge had moved six to eight inches, opening a crack in the roadway. No fatalities were reported with the bridge collapse, however, five indirect fatalities occurred in a multi-vehicle collision along a detour, U.S. Highway 285, south of Pecos.
April 2004	Flash Flood	Toyah	$500,000	Eight to twelve inches of rainfall resulted in the failure of a protective levee near Toyah. With the failure of this dike, three to four feet of water inundated the town of Toyah and prompted the evacuation of the town's residents. While 19 people in the town of 103 elected to stay through the flood event, the remainder of the town's residents were moved to a Red Cross shelter in the nearby community of Pecos. The extensive flooding in Toyah left virtually every home with flood damage. One home was completely destroyed.Flooding lingered until late afternoon on Sunday, April 4th with State Highway 17 and Farm to Market Roads 2903, 869, and 1450 remaining underwater.
April 2004	Hail	Toyah	$100,000	no account filed
June 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Toyah	$30,000	A 100 year-old bank building in Toyah was destroyed when strong winds affected the community on the evening of the 17th. Radar reflectivity data depicted strong to severe thunderstorms well to the west of Toyah in adjacent Culberson County, however, only light reflectivity returns were indicated in the Toyah area and appeared to be associated with anvil blow-off down wind of the severe storms. The Reeves County Emergency Manager reported winds around 50 MPH when the building was destroyed. These winds were likely associated with outflow from the distant storms. The structural integrity of the historic building may have been compromised by the extensive flooding event which affected the community in early April.
March 2007	Flash Flood	Toyah	$10,000	The rest area on Interstate 20 at mile marker 25 was flooding and traffic problems were occurring due to flooding along Interstate 20. Street flooding was also experienced in Pecos. Pecos police shut down the intersection of 14th and Cedar Streets, after a motorist was stranded due to high water. A motorist was stranded on Farm to Market Road 1216, six miles south of Interstate 20. Farm to market Road 1934 was also flooded.
July 2004	Hail	Toyah	$10,000	A second severe storm produced large hail over Reeves County. Multiple reports from the public and the broadcast media indicated pea to golfball size hail fell in Toyah for a twenty minute period.
February 1995	Hail	Toyah	$5,000	The sheriff's office in Pecos received reports of dime-size hail in Toyah. An off-duty deputy sheriff later reported golf ball-size hail in Toyah.
May 1994	Hail	Toyah	$5,000	no account filed
September 2014	Flash Flood	Toyah	$500	Heavy rains across Reeves County produced flash flooding 9 miles south of Toyah on FM 2903 with water over the road along Nine Mile Draw. Damage estimates are very rough.
May 2015	Hail	Toyah	-	A thunderstorm moved across Reeves County and produced nickel sized hail along Highway 285.
March 2007	Hail	Toyah	-	Nickel hail covered the ground in Toyah.
October 2005	Flash Flood	Toyah	-	Flash flooding along San Martine Draw inundated County Road 225 with water. This was reported by the Reeves County Emergency Manager.
October 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Toyah	-	A linear complex of convection initiated over Reeves County and produced severe wind gusts as reported by both law enforcement officials and trained storm spotters.
October 2003	Hail	Toyah	-	Nickel size hail covered the ground.
June 2000	Flash Flood	Toyah	-	The Reeves County Sheriff's office reported water over Farm to Market Road 869.
May 1999	Hail	Toyah	-	Hail from the northern end of a cluster of storms. Larger hail fell farther south.
May 1997	Hail	Toyah	-	Multicell storms that formed in Delaware Mountains in Culberson County had a severe cell west of Toyah as they moved eastward into richer moisture.
June 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Toyah	-	Reported by a Skywarn Spotter.
February 1995	Hail	Toyah	-	The sheriff's office in Pecos received reports of dime-size hail in Toyah. An off-duty deputy sheriff later reported golf ball-size hail in Toyah.
April 2019	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
May 2019	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
October 2015	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
August 2008	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
March 2007	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
April 2004	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
April 1997	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
April 1997	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
August 1996	Flash Flood	Toyah	-	no account filed
May 1995	Hail	Toyah	-	no account filed
May 1994	Tornado (F0)	Toyah	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Reeves 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
Hermosa	9.1 miles	8
Gozar	10.0 miles	8
Old House Place	11.8 miles	8
Burchard Place	13.5 miles	7
Lindsay	14.0 miles	8
Lindsay Division Colonia	14.1 miles	8
Hoban	14.2 miles	9
Worsham	14.3 miles	8

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 Toyah	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q978333	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 1370063. 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.