Well-Placed Anger?

Mother Nature is pissed at Dallas: How about a billion dollar hail storm & anearthquake in a week?

In early Arpril, severe storms unleashed tornadoes across the Dallas area,causing nearly $400 million in damage.
Photo by Rondo Estrello
Dallas County saw hail as large as baseballs late Wednesday afternoon.
Photo by Rondo Estrello
Early estimates for damage have been as high as a whopping $2 billion.
Photo by Rondo Estrello
Meanwhile, just south of Fort Worth, a minor earthquake woke slumbering northTexans around 2:30 a.m. early Friday morning.
FOX 4 News
Seismic activity in the Fort Worth area has been on the rise in recent yearswith minor earthquakes occurring about twice a year.
NBC 5 News

For some reason Mother Nature is none too happy with the Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex, socking the region with two major events this week.

First a Wednesday hail storm unleashed baseball-sized hunks from the sky — and damage estimates from $400 million to a billion dollars. Then, a 3.1-magnatude earthquake hit early Friday morning.

It is the largest reported hail in Dallas County since the mid 1950s, with hunks of ice shattering windows and ripping through vegetation. The Art Deco marquee of the city's historic Lawndale Theater suffered serious damage and a number of glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly were smashed at an exhibit of the artist's work at the Dallas Arboretum.

Baseball-s i zed hunks of ice shattered windows and ripped through vegetation.

"Our region sees about 20 severe thundersstorms a year," National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Huffmann told CultureMap Friday. "Hail is always a possibility, depending on the strength of the wind and updrafts, and a good majority of these storms produce it."

Huffmann said the storm was mainly concentrated around the city of Dallas, where the hail could cause the most damage.

According to Reuters, the storm could reach an estimated $2 billion in insured losses, nearly four times the amount of record-breaking wreckage caused by Dallas-area tornadoes in early April. Luckily, no deaths or major injuries have been reported.

Just to add insult to injury, Fort Worth found its nearby suburbs slammed with a minor, but nevertheless surprising, earthquake at 2:33 a.m. Friday morning.

"This was a very small earthquake that might have been strong enough to knock items of a tall shelf," geophysicist John Belini from the U.S. Geological Survey told CultureMap. "Other than that, though, it was relatively weak and probably only lasted a few seconds." Again, no injuries were reported.

Belini said that, while seismic activity in the north Texas is minimal compared to Alaska and California, small earthquakes have occurred an average of two times a year in the past half decade. As of yet, no 21st-century quakes in the DFW region have reached higher than 3.3 on the Richter Scale.

While seismic activity in the north Texas is relatively minimal, small earthquakes have occurred an average of two times a year in the past half decade.

Nevertheless, concern continues to mount over the state's "fracking" industry, which injects chemicals deep into the ground to extract oil and natural gas. There are state impact reports noting that liquid chemicals produced during the fracking process in deep well injection can lubricate fault lines to set off occasional minor seismic activity, although no greater than a magnitude of 3.

Belini noted that many of the North Texas fault lines are small and still under-studied, adding that more research will need to be conducted to determine whether the uptick in activity is related to manmade drilling efforts.

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hottest headlines of 2025

Houston's richest residents, best suburbs, and more top city news in 2025

Photo by Wilson Parish

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Editor’s note: As 2025 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Houston this year. In our City Life section, readers will notice several of our local universities earned high praise from prestigious global and national publications. Houston's sprawling suburbs continued to skyrocket in popularity for their livability and safety, and no top-10 list is complete without mentioning the city's wealthiest residents. Read on for the top 10 Houston City Life stories of 2025.

1. 2 Houston universities named among world’s best in 2026 rankings. These two high-performing local institutions – Rice University and University of Houston – are in a class of their own, according to the QS World University Rankings 2026. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) compiles the prestigious list each year; the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 universities from around the world.

2. Richard Kinder is Houston's richest billionaire in 2025, Forbes says. The Kinder Morgan chairman is the 11th richest Texas resident right now, and ranks as the 108th richest American. Kinder also dethroned Tilman Fertitta to claim the title as the wealthiest Houstonian.

3. 2 Houston neighbors shine as top-10 best places to live in the U.S. Pearland and League City, respectively, claimed No. 3 and No. 6 in U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best Places to Live in the U.S." rankings. The 2025-2026 rankings examined 250 U.S. cities based on five livability indexes: Quality of life, value, desirability, job market, and net migration.

4. 5 Houston suburbs deemed best places to retire in 2026 by U.S. News. The Woodlands and Spring should be on the lookout for an influx of retirees next year, U.S. News predicts. Three more Houston-area neighbors also ranked among the top 25 best places to retire in America.

5. Activist group calls out Houston highway as a 'freeway without a future'. A May 2025 report from Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) included Houston's Interstate 45 expansion on its list of highways with infrastructure that is "nearing the end of its functional life." CNU claims further expansion of Houston's highway system could eventually lead to the loss of the city's bayous, while also diminishing the remaining flood-absorbing land.

6. 10 things to know about America's first Ismaili Center opening in Houston. After nearly 20 years in the making, the long-awaited Ismaili Center, Houston finally opened its doors to the public. The 11-acre site was painstakingly designed and constructed to offer indoor and outdoor public spaces for all Houstonians to enjoy, connect, and engage.

7. Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta asking $192 million for superyacht. Fertitta, who owns the Houston Rockets and restaurant and hospitality conglomerate Landry's, decided to sell his 252-foot yacht, named Boardwalk, to make room for an even larger superyacht he is expected to receive in April 2026. Among numerous luxurious amenities, Boardwalk also features a helipad.

8. 2 Houston neighbors rank among America's safest suburbs in 2025. Spring came in at No. 19 and West University Place followed at No. 21 in SmartAsset's August 2025 study, which is the first time the two Houston suburbs have made it into the top 25.

9. Houston is one of America's most overpriced cities, study finds. This likely isn't a surprise to some Houstonians. The study, conducted by Highland Cabinetry, said Houston "struggles with heavy pollution and underwhelming income levels."

10. 9 Houston universities make U.S. News' 2025 list of top grad schools. Among the newcomers this year are Houston Christian University and Texas Southern University. HCU's graduate education school ranks No. 21 in Texas, and TSU has the 10th best law school in the state.

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