Meteorologists say the Texas Hill Country is frequently hit with floods, although some officials and residents were caught off guard by the catastrophic storms, which killed more than 100 people over the holiday weekend.

The record of frequent, often deadly floods in Central Texas goes back more than 200 years to July 1819, when floodwaters spilled into the major plazas of San Antonio. That city on the edge of the Hill Country was hit by major floods again in 1913, 1921, 1998 and 2025, to cite a few examples.