When it comes to the weather, Texas has it worse than the rest of the United States. It frequently ranks high in lists of states with the worst weather, sometimes beating another top contender, Florida, in the no. 1 spot. Especially in Fort Worth – the Texas city with the “worst” weather.
Texas often deals with a wide variety of natural disasters, including hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, extreme heat, winter storms, wildfires, and floods. Its vulnerability to extreme weather events is highlighted in a study, which found that the Lone Star State has suffered from 190 billion-dollar weather events in the span of 44 years, from 1980 and 2024. Because of this, Texas has been cited as “the extreme weather capital of the U.S.”
What’s worse, the state’s yearly average of such events has risen from 4.2 to 13.6. A major reason for this increase can be attributed to climate change, and Texas is considered to be ground zero. Sylvia Dee, associate professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University, told Bloomberg, “We have extreme cold, we have extreme heat, we have hurricanes, we have flooding, we have tornadoes, we’ve got it all.”
However, these extreme weather events are not fairly distributed across all Texas. Some cities have it worse than others. Two of them are vying for the title of the Texas city with the worst weather.
- Houston: Worst for Daily Discomfort
If your definition of worst weather is that physically oppressive atmosphere that carries a threat of total destruction, then Houston comes in first among the cities in Texas. Space City experiences frequent flooding and hurricanes, and its coastal location near the Gulf of Mexico consistently results in a hot, sticky environment.
- Space City’s Muggy Season
With an average daily relative humidity level of 75%, Houston is one of the stickiest cities in the country. Relative humidity is the difference (expressed as a percentage) between water vapor actually in the air vs. the maximum amount the air can hold at a specific temperature.
But, the real measure of atmospheric moisture is dew point or saturation point. This refers to the temperature at which water will start to condense out of the air into liquid water as dew. A low dew point means a dry, comfortable air. The higher the dew point (beginning above 18°C (65°F)), the more moisture there is in the air, resulting in a “muggy” feel. Higher than that and the air becomes “disgusting and steamy.”
Houston’s “muggy season” is prevalent throughout the year, but it’s especially intense and oppressive from May to September. When it’s muggy, you sweat more but high humidity stops your sweat from evaporating, leaving it to sit on your skin or drip off. This fails to cool you but rather results in the sticky feeling you experience.
- The Threat of Hurricanes and Floods
Beyond the daily grind of the humidity, Houston faces a catastrophic risk profile that few other cities can match. It often experiences flooding and gets hit by hurricanes frequently.
Harris County, in which Houston is the county seat, holds a “perfect” 100 out of 100 risk score on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hurricane index, a ranking it shares only with Miami-Dade County in Florida. This score indicates that Space City faces extreme danger from hurricane-related hazards, with high social vulnerability, low community resilience, and very high expected annual losses.
Houston gets a direct hit from a hurricane about once every 5.5 years. However, when it does get hit, resulting damages are in the billion-dollar range, e.g., Hurricane Harvey resulted in around $125 billion in damage.
Meanwhile, flooding is another huge concern. Flash floods occur multiple times annually, and a major flood in Harris County occurs every two years or so.
- Fort Worth: The Epicenter of Acute Violence
If you’re battling daily discomfort in Houston, in Fort Worth, extreme weather threats involve a series of sudden, explosive events, especially from hail and tornadoes. This is the reason why Fort Worth gets tagged as the Texas city with the “worst” weather.
The Hail Capital of Texas
If we’re looking at the frequency of severe storm events, Fort Worth is the clear winner (or loser, depending on how you look at it). Because of this, multiple publications and meteorologists frequently crown Fort Worth as the Texas city with the “worst” weather.
For instance, Anthony Franze, the newsroom meteorologist at the San Antonio Express-News, reported that since the year 2000, Fort Worth in Tarrant County has recorded more severe hail and damaging wind reports than any of the other most populous cities in the state, namely, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin.
Seeing hail in Fort Worth, nor across Texas, isn’t really surprising, as the state is located within Hail Valley, a region that deals with thousands of hail storms annually. Large, frequent hailstorms earned the state the nickname “hailstorm capital of the United States,” and Fort Worth bears the costly brunt. One such destructive hailstorm occurred in May 1995 during Mayfest, which resulted in around $2 billion in damages in Tarrant and Dallas counties.
The Tornado Threat
Aside from being vulnerable to hail, Fort Worth and the rest of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex is also sitting in the heart of Tornado Alley and is constantly at risk of twisters.
While Harris County holds the record for the total number of tornadoes, these are smaller compared to those that hit the Fort Worth area. “The DFW area often sees the most destructive tornado events,” Franze said. That is, they are stronger, with a high percentage reaching EF-2 or higher.
One of the deadliest tornadoes hit the area in March 2000. A powerful F3 twister plowed through Fort Worth and injured 80 people, killed two, and leaving an estimated property damage of $450 million.
The Verdict: Which City is Actually ‘Worst’?
In order to determine which of these two cities actually has the worst weather in all of Texas, we must look at which one is more difficult to live in on a daily and yearly basis.
On the one hand, Fort Worth has the “worst” weather if we are measuring by sudden violence. However, while certain seasons cause residents to be on high alert, the city enjoys nice conditions more often than Houston, i.e., it doesn’t have as many muggy days nor the same average humidity. In other words, Fort Worth residents can still enjoy being outdoors for a greater part of the year.
Meanwhile, Houston has the “worst” weather if we are measuring by overall risk and chronic misery. The city has the country’s highest hurricane risk (100/100), it is prone to massive multi-billion-dollar floods, and is wet and sticky for the most part of the year.
So, while a Fort Worth hail storm might dent your car, a Houston summer will test your sanity—and a Gulf hurricane could take your home.