Geography and Climate 

Fort Worth is located in North Texas and the Southwest, and the South portion of the United States. The DFW Metroplex is the hub of the North Texas region. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 298.9 square miles (774.1 km²). 292.5 square miles (757.7 km²) of it is land and 6.3 square miles (16.4 km²) of it (2.12%) is water.

A large storage dam was built in 1913 on the West Fork of the Trinity River, 7 miles (10 km) from the city, with a storage capacity of 30 billion US gallons (110,000,000 m³) of water. The lake formed by this dam is known as Lake Worth. The cost of the dam was nearly US$1,500,000 - a handsome sum at the time.

Climate

Fort Worth has a humid subtropical climate according to the Köppen climate classification system. The hottest month of the year is July, when the average high temperature is 97 °F (36 °C), and overnight low temperatures average 72 °F (23 °C), giving an average temperature of 84 °F (29 °C). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average high temperature is 55 °F (13 °C), and low temperatures average 31 °F (-1 °C). The average temperature in January is 43 °F (6 °C).



The highest temperature ever recorded in Fort Worth is 111 °F (44 °C), on July 26, 1954. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fort Worth is -6 °F (-21 °C), on December 24, 1989.  Because of its position in North Texas, Fort Worth is very susceptible to supercell thunderstorms, which produce large hail and can produce tornadoes, like the 2000 tornado that went through downtown.

The average annual precipitation for Fort Worth is 34.01 inches (863.8 mm). The wettest month of the year is May, when 4.58 inches (116.3 mm) of precipitation falls. The driest month of the year is January, when only 1.70 inches (43.2 mm) of precipitation falls. The average annual snowfall in Fort Worth is very light, only 2.6 inches (66.0 mm).