These are The Strongest Earthquakes in the History of East Texas

In East Texas, we experience a mixed bag of weather extremes.

Heat and Drought

This is pretty much a given every summer. The main questions are just how hot and how dry. I can recall a number of Augusts where it's not a question of reaching 100 degrees, but for how many weeks in a row.

Meanwhile, we can go from a wet spring to burn bans throughout East Texas in less than 30 days.

Hurricanes

Thankfully, it's been a while (knocking hard on wood), but many area residents still vividly remember the massive destruction that Hurricanes Rita and Ike brought to the Pineywoods. Hurricanes and forests are just not a good match.

Tornadoes

Although twisters tend to be more common during the spring and fall in East Texas, tornadoes here can happen during any month. Remember the EF3 tornado that hit the east side of Lufkin on December 23, 2009?

Snow/Ice Storms?

A few pellets of sleet and a dusting of snow are usually the extremes that we get each winter.  That is, until the winter of 2021. This once-in-a-lifetime event crippled much of East Texas, and we missed out on another debilitating ice storm event by about 180 miles to welcome in February 2023.

Earthquakes

These seismic events continue to be on the rise in the Lone State State.  I'm not going to get into the reasons why, but using 2021 as an example, the number of 4.0 magnitude tremors in Texas rose exponentially.

Ever heard of the Elkhart - Mt. Enterprise Fault Zone? How about the Angelina Flexure or the Sabine Arch? I have...about 30 minutes before I began writing this post. You're welcome to dive deep into the scientific tectonics of how this contributed to East Texas quakes.

As for me, I'm all for simpler reading, so I skipped to a few other articles listing some of the strongest earthquakes in East Texas in modern history.