The Perfect Storm: Denton’s Big History With Bad Weather

I wrote this article for the Denton County Office of History and Culture

You can find my article at the following link:

https://dentoncountyhistoryandculture.wordpress.com/2024/06/14/the-perfect-storm-dentons-big-history-with-bad-weather/

Written by: Tim Ballard, Museum Education Assistant

The end of May 2024 seemed to wrap up, or at least give Denton County an intermission from the torrential rain, hammering hail, and destructive winds that have been a constant onslaught for the last few weeks. I had recently heard from a North Texas native that this series of storms was one of the worst they had ever experienced, with trees ripped clean out of the ground, tornados tearing through parts of the county, and so much rainwater that Denton County no doubt will have a few new lakes. I can also remember some massive weather anomalies in North Texas over the last several years, from long summer droughts that put us on a water ration, to the big freeze we had back in 2021 that shut down much of the county’s power and water. Being on the edge of Oklahoma and Tornado Alley, I’m proud to say that we Denton County folk and our North Texas kin are no strangers to weathering out the worst of storms.

We’ve seen some rough ones over the years, but all this weather had me curious: What was the worst storm in Denton County’s known history? We did some research here at the Denton County Office of History and Culture and it turns out that you could write a book on the number of weather anomalies… and catastrophes we’ve endured. Here are a few that are of note.

A photo taken in Aubrey of a small-frame building that has been completely pulled up from its foundations and flipped over after a massive county-wide storm in 1918.

One of the earliest reliable records was detailed in the Denton County News on June 8th, 1892. On a dark night in early June, small rural farming communities and towns of 19th-century Denton County were assailed by gale-force winds, tornados, and a deluge of rain that had never before been recorded. The storm lasted days, unrelenting and disastrous as houses were ripped from their foundations, massive pecan and oak trees were snapped like twigs, and worse, one resident, Gutherie O.T., and eye-witness, reported to Denton County News, “Hail the size of hen’s eggs broke windows, destroyed fields, and killed livestock. The town of Carney was almost completely wiped out, the houses were all small frame structures…”. Miraculously nobody was killed, although there were a few serious injuries from debris and collapsing structures.

The end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s were marked throughout with a multitude of storms ranging from mild to severe, including a few exceptionally rough ones in the late 1920s. It was 1946 however when the Denton Record-Chronicle and associated press reviewed the damage of one of the most massive Texas storms of the century. From Sanger to Flower Mound, rain pelted those unlucky enough to be caught outside so hard that it left welts and flooded low-grade sections of land putting small structures completely underwater, carrying away vehicles and buildings with it. A tornado moved north to south starting in Sanger, and at the climax of it all, hail the size of grapefruit fell from the sky. Unlike the storm of 1892, this one unfortunately had a high casualty count from many of the above damages, illustrating just how dangerous it can be when there’s nowhere to find sturdy shelter.

In 1918, Aubrey was struck by a storm that tore through town with a subsequent tornado down Main Street.

Many buildings, including sturdy longstanding construction, were demolished.

Like with most storms that hit Denton County hard, the repair process was costly, equating to hundreds of millions in damage today.

On the subject of costly storms, at the beginning of the 21st century, many people thought that in 2012, the Mayan long calendar coming to an end heralded the end of the world, creating a terrifying phenomenon worldwide. Fortunately, the world didn’t end, but we did have some apocalyptic weather in North Texas of a record-breaking magnitude that dismantled parts of Denton County and the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The Moore Law Firm, which specializes in weather-related insurance reported, “Four supercells produced a record-setting hail event and one tornado across parts of North Texas. Two of the four supercells tracked through Dallas County causing over (at the time) $890 million in hail damage. The hail in Dallas County ranged in size up to 3 in diameter. In many areas, the hail lasted for at least 30 minutes. Tens of thousands of cars were damaged by the hail, windows were shattered, roofs were damaged, and trees were shredded of their leaves”. Denton County was no exception, with several injuries reported and infrastructural buildings damaged, it was a storm that not only left its mark on history but one that people are still recovering from today.

We are always encouraging people to remember and be excited about being a part of history in the making because one day someone might look back and read about our current events and wonder what it must have been like. In the case of the notorious and hazardous North Texas weather we experience here in historic Denton County, however, I think we can all agree that part of history is one we would sit out on!

19th and 20th century information and pictures courtesy of “The Portal To Texas History” Newspaper Archives by University of North Texas. 21st Century Insurance Article Information courtesy of Moore Law-Firm.