Hail, Tornado and Wind History in Smith County, TX

If you are planning a metal building, hail, tornado and wind history in Smith County is worth five minutes before you pick a roof panel. We pulled 20 years of official storm reports for the county (2006 to 2025) and counted them.

The headline numbers

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Storm Events Database, Smith County, Texas. A "storm day" is one calendar date with at least one qualifying report; several reports on one day count once.

Hail: how big and how often

The National Weather Service calls hail severe at 1 inch (quarter size) or larger. Counting individual reports, not days, here is how the 194 Smith County hail reports break down by size:

Counted by day, 21 days had hail of 1.75 inches or larger, and 6 had 2.5 inches or larger. At least one 1.75-inch day happened in 13 of the 20 years. The year-to-year swing is large: 2023 had 6 days of 1-inch-plus hail and 2022 had none.

Days with 1-inch-plus hail, by year

Calendar days per year with at least one hail report of 1 inch or larger.

Damaging wind

NOAA records a thunderstorm wind report when gusts reach 58 mph (50 knots) or cause damage, so every wind report below is at or above that line. We converted knots to mph. Most reports are estimated gusts (229 of 238); 9 were measured.

The highest report was about 100 mph on April 12, 2022. For comparison, the strongest tornado ratings seen in the county, EF2, correspond to estimated winds of roughly 111 to 135 mph, so straight-line wind and tornadoes sit at different ends of the range.

Days with 70 mph-plus gusts, by year

Almost all of these fall after 2012. Read the early blank years as thin reporting as much as calm weather (see the caveats below).

Tornadoes

The county has 24 tornado records for 2006 to 2025, in 14 of the 20 years. Two or more happened in the same storm system on several dates, so there are fewer tornado days than tornadoes.

Recorded property damage for all 24 tornadoes adds up to about $1.8 million. One was rated F1 under the older Fujita scale (2006); the rest use the Enhanced Fujita scale. Most tracks were short, 1 to 5 miles long.

When it happens: the seasonal pattern

Hail and wind peak in spring, with a clear second bump in autumn:

Hail reports of 1 inch or larger, by month (2006 to 2025)

Damaging wind reports, by month (2006 to 2025)

April is the peak for both hail and tornadoes (10 of 24 tornadoes). Wind stays active through summer, with 42 reports in June and 21 in August. Hail is rare from July to September. If you can schedule it, the best time to have the roof on is outside April to June, although most builds cannot move that much.

What it means for a barndominium build

A metal roof and wall system behaves differently from shingles in hail: panels usually resist punctures but can dent, and the coating can be damaged. Large, open clear-span interiors and tall overhead doors also catch wind. General points to raise with a builder, none of them a recommendation of a product:

• Roof panel hail rating. Ask for the panel's UL 2218 impact classification (Class 4 is the highest) and the maker's written hail terms, then ask what gauge and profile were tested.
• Design wind speed. Ask the builder or engineer for the design wind speed and the ASCE 7 edition used, in writing, on the engineered plans. Ask how overhead doors, end walls and anchoring to the slab are handled.
• Insurance. Ask your insurer before you buy panels: does an impact-rated roof change your policy or premium, is there a separate wind and hail deductible, and does the policy exclude cosmetic dents on metal. Answers vary by company.
• Who is responsible. Ask whether the quote includes engineered, stamped plans for wind, and who handles hail damage under the builder's warranty versus your insurance.
• Shelter. For tornado safety, rely on a shelter plan (an interior room, or a storm shelter built to FEMA guidance), not on the building shell.

Rules and costs depend on your lot and design; see the permits guide for Smith County and our cost guide, since impact-rated panels, a higher wind design and a shelter can all change the price. To compare builders on these questions, see how to choose a barndominium builder.

Caveats: read before quoting this page

• It is a report record, not a full count. An event is in the database only if someone reported it or the Weather Service surveyed it. Hail falling on empty pasture often goes unreported.
• Reporting grows over time. Hail days with 1-inch-plus stones went from 23 in 2006 to 2015 to 34 in 2016 to 2025, and 70 mph-plus wind days from 2 to 26. Part of that is population, cameras and spotter networks, not only weather.
• Size is often an estimate. Hail size comes from spotters comparing to coins and balls; wind gusts are mostly estimated from damage.
• Damage dollars are unreliable. Many reports leave damage blank or give a rough figure, so we do not total hail or wind damage here.
• County level only. Smith County is about 950 square miles. Storms are narrow, so your lot can see far more or less than the county record.
• Before 2010 the Weather Service used 3/4 inch as its severe hail threshold, so early years include smaller stones.

Next step

If you are comparing builders, use the form below and say whether roof hail rating and wind design are priorities. Independent local builders may reach out with their own quotes.

Sources

• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, bulk detail files for 2006 to 2025, filtered to Smith County, Texas, queried 2026-10-26. Public domain US government data. Hail size in inches, wind in knots converted to mph, tornado ratings as recorded. We use event counts and sizes only, not event narratives.
• Method: rows with state TEXAS and county/zone name SMITH. Hail, wind and tornado rows are all county-level records. Zone-based events such as winter storms are not used here.