Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Santa Fe, TX

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Houston NWSO, TX, 7 miles north of Santa Fe at 19 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 76°F; January is the coolest, at 64°F and 46°F. September is the wettest at 7.3 inches of precipitation on average and February the driest at 3.0 inches; the year adds up to 60.0 inches over 69 days with at least a tenth of an inch. June to November, the hurricane season months, bring 59% of the year's precipitation (35.1 of 60.0 inches); the other six months are drier. September has brought the most of the 61 tropical systems that passed within 75 miles (21); a normal September there has highs of 88°F and 7.3 inches of precipitation. Highs reach 90°F on about 76 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 9 nights a year. That 60.0 inches is more than at 304 of the 312 Texas stations used on this site (97%). Hitchcock, 6 miles southeast, has its own station (Galveston Scholes Field, TX): 47.2 inches a year, 12.8 less than here, and the same August average high, 92°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Galveston Railroad Bridge, TX, 13 miles east, averaged 89°F in August and 56°F in January over 2021–2025. It averaged 80°F or warmer from May to September. Sea level at the Eagle Point tide gauge, 13 miles from Santa Fe, has risen 4.80 ± 0.27 inches per decade from 1993 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 48.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 142 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 117 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Santa Fe: 79 thunderstorm wind reports, 28 flash floods, 8 lightning strikes, 1 flood and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $3.9 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 83 mph, on April 10, 2024. May has had the most flash floods, 7 of 28. Of the 745 Texas cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 543 have had fewer than Santa Fe.

Flood insurance policyholders in Santa Fe's 2 ZIP codes have filed 1,996 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1979, and were paid $76.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Hurricane Harvey in 2017: 794 claims (40% of all) and $64.4 million, then Flooding in 1979 with 471 and Hurricane Alicia in 1983 with 129. 89% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 433 Texas cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 396 have fewer than Santa Fe.