Texas hail, wildfire, drought, heat and power outages: the inland hazards

Summary

Retirees often ask which part of Texas is safest, and the honest answer is that each region has a different mix of hazards and none is free of them. The Gulf Coast has hurricanes, covered in the guide to Gulf Coast hurricane, windstorm and flood insurance. The rest of the state has hail, wildfire, drought, heat and power outages, and these affect the cost of insuring a house, the reliability of the water supply, and what a summer day is like for someone who is no longer working indoors on a schedule.

This guide goes through each hazard using what official sources say: the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) on hail, roofs and claims; the National Weather Service on specific hailstorms and on heat; Texas A&M Forest Service and a NASA report on wildfire; the Texas Water Development Board, the National Weather Service, the Edwards Aquifer Authority and the Lower Colorado River Authority on drought and lake levels; and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) on the grid and outages. Where a figure changes over time, the date it applies to is given. Drought and lake conditions in particular can change within weeks, so treat the dated numbers as snapshots and check the current status before relying on them.

None of these hazards produces a single label for a town or a metro. Hail follows storm tracks that cross counties, wildfire risk depends on the vegetation and the edge of development around a particular street, water risk depends on which source a utility uses, and an outage depends on the local utility's lines. The practical approach is to ask for the hazard history and the coverage terms of the specific address, which the final section turns into questions.

Key takeaways

• Away from the coast, wind and hail coverage is usually part of the homeowners policy, but the wind and hail deductible may differ and roof coverage may change from replacement cost to actual cash value as a roof ages. Ask for the terms in writing before buying.
• Hail is documented across Texas: NWS reviews describe the Wylie storm of April 11, 2016 (80% of homes affected), the San Antonio storm of April 12, 2016 (4.5-inch hail), and large-hail reports in April 2026 around Dallas, Rockwall, Hunt, Johnson and Hill Counties.
• Wildfire risk is statewide and concentrated at the wildland-urban interface. The September 2011 Bastrop County Complex Fire destroyed 785 homes, according to NASA. Texas A&M Forest Service recommends emergency-vehicle access, two evacuation routes and a kit that includes medications and insurance papers.
• Drought status changes quickly: on the October 6, 2026 map date the Water Data for Texas dashboard showed 82.00% of Texas in moderate drought or worse, while Lake Travis was reported 95% full on October 5, 2026. The Edwards Aquifer Authority regulates permit holders; cities enforce household watering rules.
• Older adults are named by the National Weather Service as particularly vulnerable to heat, and outages can strike in winter as well as summer. Know which utility serves the address, how to report an outage with the PUC's guidance, and keep medical needs in a backup plan.

Hail and wind damage in the rest of Texas

Away from the coast, TDI says a Texas homeowner probably has wind and hail coverage inside the homeowners policy. It pays for wind and hail damage much as it pays for fire, lightning or theft, although there may be a different deductible for windstorm damage. That makes the deductible a matter to check in the policy, because a hail claim may involve a separate, and sometimes larger, out-of-pocket amount than other kinds of loss.

The roof is where hail damage is most expensive, and TDI's roof guidance is specific. Some policies pay up to the full cost to repair the roof at current prices, called replacement cost coverage, while others pay less if the roof is older or worn, called actual cash value coverage. TDI says that as roofs age some companies switch to actual cash value, and if the roof is in poor condition a company may decline to cover it at all, and that the company should tell the policyholder when it changes coverage. With replacement cost coverage the company typically pays in two checks, the first a partial payment and the rest after repairs have started. TDI also warns that an insurer will not pay for a new roof just because it is old or worn out, that an insurer inspects the roof at application and may charge more or refuse to insure based on what it sees, and that roofing materials less likely to be damaged by wind, hail or fire might earn a discount.

TDI has also publicized the discount side of this. Whether a given company offers a discount for a given roof or retrofit is a question for the agent, and the amount of any discount depends on the company and the policy.

National Weather Service storm reviews show why the concern is real and why it is not limited to one metro. On April 11, 2016, an intense supercell traversed North Texas roughly from Wichita Falls to Tyler. The NWS Fort Worth review says the storm is remembered for its massive hail, especially in Wylie, where 80% of homes were affected and over $300 million in damage occurred, with only a few minor injuries. It recorded a hailstone of 5.25 inches, a record for the Fort Worth forecast area, and notes that Moore County and Ward County, both in West Texas, have each had hailstones measuring 6 inches, so it was not a state record. The next day, April 12, 2016, thunderstorms moved into the San Antonio area and, according to the NWS Austin/San Antonio review, the strongest storm produced a large swath of very large hail just north of downtown San Antonio, with multiple reports of 2 to 3 inch hail, a largest stone of 4.5 inches, and damage that its estimates put at around $1.36 billion.

More recent events are documented as well. The NWS Fort Worth office's April 2026 severe weather summary reports that on April 27 numerous reports of large hail up to teacup size were received, with the largest hail reported in northeast Dallas, Rockwall and Hunt Counties, and that on April 28 dozens of reports of hail up to softball size were received, with the largest hail near Godley in Johnson County and Itasca in Hill County. The office marks this information as preliminary and subject to change, and it also lists tornadoes confirmed on those days. Hail is a repeated spring event on the plains and in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the San Antonio and Hill Country corridor has had its own major storm.

After a hail event, TDI's checklist applies: file the claim as soon as possible, take pictures and video of the damage and keep damaged items until the company says otherwise, prevent more damage with temporary repairs and keep receipts, be available for the adjuster, ask about living expenses if the house cannot be occupied, and get more than one bid. TDI cautions against paying a contractor in full up front, advises checking references, and says it is illegal under state law to waive a homeowners deductible, so a contractor who offers to waive it should be avoided. If the roof is old, the best time to learn what the policy pays is before a storm, not after.

Wildfire and the edge of development

Texas A&M Forest Service describes itself as the lead agency in Texas for fighting wildfires. Its homeowner guidance defines a wildfire as an uncontrolled or unplanned fire burning vegetation like a forest or grasslands, which can occur in isolated areas or very close to and within communities. It points to the wildland-urban interface, the area where developed land is next to or intermixed with undeveloped wildland, as often the most at risk for damage or loss, and notes that as the population expands out of urban settings the number of such communities increases. The agency's risk page states that wildfires were once primarily a rural concern and have become a statewide threat as people and structures have expanded into wildland areas.

The best-documented Central Texas example is the September 2011 fire season. NASA's Earth Observatory reports that as of September 7, 2011, the Texas Forest Service had responded to 172 fires affecting a total of 135,051 acres over the previous week, that the Bastrop County Complex Fire had destroyed 785 homes, and that other fires had destroyed 238 homes. As of September 6 the Bastrop County Complex Fire had burned 33,089 acres and was 30 percent contained, and it started on September 4. Bastrop is the Lost Pines town most associated with that fire, and a buyer there should pay close attention to the vegetation around a lot, the access for emergency vehicles and the insurer's treatment of wildfire exposure.

Forest Service materials say there is a state-level tool for looking up an address. Its risk page lists the Texas Wildfire Risk Assessment Portal, TxWRAP, as showing risk in an area and offering resources, and the agency also posts fire danger ratings, fuel dryness maps and seasonal outlooks. The same page records that the Smokehouse Creek Fire in Hutchinson County was described as the largest wildfire in Texas history, and that extremely critical fire weather has been forecast in the Texas Panhandle near Amarillo, Borger, Canadian, Childress, Lubbock, Pampa and Perryton. Wildfire is therefore a Panhandle and plains issue as well as a Central Texas one.

Local government plays a direct role. The Forest Service explains that when drought conditions exist a burn ban can be put in place by a county judge or the county commissioners court, prohibiting or restricting outdoor burning, and that it provides drought-determination information using the Keetch Byram Drought Index to county governments. A buyer who intends to burn brush on acreage should ask the county about the current ban status instead of assuming it.

Preparation is detailed and practical. The Forest Service's evacuation guidance recommends ensuring that a home allows access for emergency vehicles, with driveways at least 13 feet wide and vertical clearance of at least 13½ feet; identifying at least two evacuation routes; keeping a kit with enough food and water for at least 72 hours including pets, prescriptions with dosages along with the equipment and power cords needed to use them, copies of insurance information and other papers, and cash; registering for local emergency alerts; and leaving early, because residents do not have to wait for an evacuation order. It also says to update the homeowner's insurance so the policy reflects the current features of the home and to keep an inventory of contents. To report a wildfire, call 911.

Drought, the aquifer and the lakes

Drought in Texas is a water-supply question and a tax and landscaping question. The Texas Water Development Board's Water Data for Texas drought dashboard, produced with the Office of the Texas State Climatologist and showing the U.S. Drought Monitor, reported for the map date of October 6, 2026 that about 95.74% of Texas was abnormally dry or worse, 82.00% was in moderate drought or worse, 52.44% was in severe drought or worse, 13.49% was in extreme drought or worse, and 1.06% was in exceptional drought, with only 4.26% showing no drought. The same board's reservoir page reported on October 8, 2026 that monitored water supply reservoirs in the state were 72.6% full. The statewide numbers are an average of very different regional situations.

The National Weather Service office for Austin and San Antonio put the regional detail into a drought information statement valid October 1, 2026. It reports beneficial rainfall in June and July, and says streamflows and reservoirs have trended much higher since the July floods, while an increasing number of watersheds were seeing lower streamflow percentiles because of little rain in the previous 30 days. It states that September was a very dry and hot month for the service area, that storage in area reservoirs remained low at Medina and Amistad despite recent improvements, and that portions of the I-35 corridor and Coastal Plains were in extreme drought (10.61% of the area) with severe drought or worse covering 56.55% of the area and moderate drought or worse covering 80.57%. The office's seasonal drought outlook called for drought to be removed for most of the area but to persist for portions of the Coastal Plains and the Austin metro.

The Edwards Aquifer, the main groundwater source for San Antonio and nearby communities, is managed with its own staged system. The Edwards Aquifer Authority's Critical Period Management plan has five stages of escalating reductions in pumping for permit holders, triggered by declining aquifer levels or springflow measured as 10-day averages. For example, Stage 1 for the San Antonio Pool is triggered when the J-17 index well in Bexar County drops below 660 feet above mean sea level or the spring flow at Comal or San Marcos Springs falls below 225 or 96 cubic feet per second, and it requires a 20% reduction in authorized withdrawals. The Authority's home page reported in September 2026 that decreasing aquifer levels prompted a return to Stage 3, which requires permit holders to reduce authorized pumping by 35%, and also listed a September 29, 2026 item that Stage 3 watering rules returned for San Antonio Water System customers. San Antonio and San Marcos are the places in this set where those aquifer and spring triggers are most directly relevant.

The Authority is explicit about what it does not do: it regulates Edwards well owners with permits to pump, not the public, and it does not enforce lawn watering or other general water limits. Those are enforced by municipalities, so a household learns its own restriction from its water provider. The Authority's jurisdiction covers all of Bexar, Medina and Uvalde Counties and portions of Atascosa, Caldwell, Comal, Guadalupe and Hays Counties, and a buyer in or near those counties should ask the seller and the water utility which source supplies the house and what stage the utility is in.

The Highland Lakes on the Colorado River show the other swing. The Lower Colorado River Authority says the lakes northwest of Austin sit in an arid part of Texas that is prone to both floods and serious droughts, that Lakes Buchanan and Travis are the region's primary water supply reservoirs, and that they were designed to fluctuate, rising when capturing water in wet times and falling with use and evaporation in dry times. On October 8, 2026 at 1:55 PM its table showed Lake Buchanan at 1018.56 feet and Lake Travis at 678.05 feet, and the two lakes together held about 1,908,161 acre-feet. In early October 2026 LCRA reported floodgate operations at Wirtz and Starcke dams moving floodwater from the Llano River, and a post dated October 5, 2026 said Lake Travis was 95% full after more than 3 feet in a week. Marble Falls and Llano are the Highland Lakes places where the dams and the river affect daily life.

For a retiree the point is that drought, flood and reservoir levels can reverse within weeks, and a lake or aquifer view that looks permanent in one season may not be in the next. The questions are which source supplies the home, what the utility's drought plan says, and how a restriction would affect a lawn, a pool or a well.

Extreme heat and older adults

The National Weather Service states that heat can be very taxing on the body, can lead to heat-related illness, and can worsen existing health conditions. Among the groups it names as particularly vulnerable, it lists older adults, particularly those who have pre-existing diseases, take certain medications, are living alone or have limited mobility, and it asks people to check in with friends and relatives who fall into those groups, especially if they do not have air conditioning. People with chronic medical conditions are also named as more likely to have a serious problem in a heat wave.

The Weather Service offers tools. The Heat Index measures how hot it feels when relative humidity is factored in with the air temperature, and as an example the Weather Service gives an air temperature of 96°F with relative humidity of 65% as a heat index of 121°F. It adds that full sunshine can increase heat index values by up to 15°F and that strong winds with very hot, dry air can be extremely hazardous. Wet Bulb Globe Temperature uses temperature, humidity, wind and solar radiation, and is particularly effective as an indicator for active people such as outdoor workers and athletes. HeatRisk is an experimental forecast that gives a color and number for each location up to seven days ahead, taking into account how far above normal the temperature is, the time of year, the duration of unusual heat, including warm overnight lows, and whether temperatures pose an elevated risk based on CDC heat-health thresholds. Its categories run from Minor, which primarily affects the extremely sensitive without cooling or hydration, to Extreme, which is rare or long-duration heat with no overnight relief.

The Weather Service's heat illness guidance describes the signs. Heat cramps are painful muscle spasms with heavy sweating. Heat exhaustion includes heavy sweating, weakness, cool, pale, clammy skin, a fast, weak pulse, dizziness, nausea, headache or fainting, and calls for moving to a cooler environment, loosening clothing and sipping water, with medical attention if the person vomits or symptoms worsen or last longer than an hour. Heat stroke includes confusion, slurred speech, a body temperature above 103°F, and loss of consciousness, and it is a medical emergency in which the Weather Service says to call 911, move the person to a cooler place and reduce body temperature, and not give fluids. It also cautions that a fan can make a person hotter when the heat index is above the 90s.

These are risks to plan for in routine: when to walk, how to keep a home cool, and what happens to a household if the power fails in August. The guide to Texas summer heat, humidity and climate by region compares NOAA temperature and hot-day normals across the state.

Power outages and the grid

ERCOT describes itself as managing the flow of electric power to more than 27 million Texas customers, representing about 90 percent of the state's electric load. It schedules power on a grid with more than 55,000 miles of transmission lines and more than 1,460 generation units, performs financial settlement for the wholesale market, and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. It is a nonprofit membership corporation subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. The fact that ERCOT serves about 90 percent of the load means some areas of Texas are served by other grids, so a buyer should ask which grid and which utility serves the address.

The PUC regulates the state's electric, telecommunication, and water and sewer utilities and handles consumer complaints. For an outage the PUC's guidance is practical: if power is lost, call the utility company to report the outage, and use the outage maps and contact information that the PUC's Storm Safety Resource Guide links by utility provider. The PUC reminds people never to approach or touch downed power lines, because they could still be live, and to report downed lines or outages to local authorities and the utility. The guide also lists a State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry among its resources and links to the Texas Division of Emergency Management's disaster portal. A retiree who depends on a medical device should look at those resources before an emergency.

ERCOT keeps a page of documents on the February 2021 extreme weather event, including a preliminary report on the causes of generator outages and derates for operating days February 14 to 19, 2021. For a retiree, the lesson is not a statistic. It is that an extended outage can occur in winter as well as summer, and that a plan should cover both heat and cold: medications, oxygen or refrigeration needs, a way to charge phones, and a place to go. The Forest Service's evacuation checklist is useful here too, because it advises keeping prescriptions, medical equipment, batteries and power cords in a kit.

Hurricanes, ice, wildfire and hail can all cause outages by damaging local lines, and the PUC's advice is to report an outage to the utility that serves the address. Backup power for a well pump or a medical need is a decision to make before the season, not during an outage.

Putting it together for a purchase decision

A short list of questions covers most of this guide. For hail: how old is the roof, is it covered at replacement cost or actual cash value, what is the wind and hail deductible, and has the house had a hail claim? For wildfire: is the lot in or near the wildland-urban interface, how wide is the driveway, what does the Forest Service's risk portal show, and does the county currently have a burn ban? For water: what source supplies the house, what stage is the utility in, and does the area depend on the Edwards Aquifer or the Highland Lakes? For heat: how will the household keep cool and how will it check on a person living alone? For power: which utility serves the address, how are outages reported, and is there a backup plan for medical needs?

These hazards also feed into the cost side that other guides cover. Insurance premiums, roof condition and water costs sit next to the property tax bill, which the Texas property taxes and appraisal districts guide explains, and the homestead and age-65 exemption guide explains the exemptions that can reduce taxable value. No premium is quoted here, because the right figure comes from a written quote for the specific house, and the right hazard assessment comes from the address, not from the county name.

Places where this matters most

• BastropThe Bastrop County seat in the Lost Pines forest on the Colorado River, with a small downtown, an emergency room in town, a new 55+ Del Webb community under construction, and a wildfire history that any buyer should understand.
• San AntonioA very large Bexar County city and metro hub with a concentrated medical center cluster, a university-hospital district, an international airport, a long-standing military retiree community and a property-tax picture that varies sharply by school district, special district and suburb.
• San MarcosA Hays County river and university city on the Austin to San Antonio corridor whose retirement case rests on one large 55+ community, a hospital in town, and a flood and aquifer picture that deserves a close look before buying.
• Marble FallsA Burnet County city on Lake Marble Falls with a full-service hospital inside the city, a younger and more renter-heavy population than the lake resort towns, and city water restrictions that have recently moved between stages.
• LlanoA small Llano County seat on the Llano River, upstream of Lake LBJ, with a locally governed critical access hospital in town, a high older-adult share, and home values far below the lake-front markets downstream.

Related guides

• Texas Gulf Coast hurricane, windstorm and flood insurance
• Texas summer heat, humidity and climate by region
• Texas property taxes and appraisal districts: how to compare actual total tax bills
• Texas homestead exemption, the age-65 exemption and the school tax ceiling
• Texas retirement taxes: state income tax, Social Security, pensions and federal taxes