Outdoor Living in Ellis County, Texas

Building in Ellis County

Ellis County is in north central Texas. Waxahachie, the county seat and largest town, lies on Interstate Highway 35E thirty miles south of Dallas. Dallas County borders it on the north, Kaufman on the east, Navarro and Hill on the south, and Johnson on the west. The county covers 939 square miles of Blackland Prairie.

The land is level to rolling, at 300 to 700 feet above sea level, on a plain that slopes southeast toward the Trinity River. Soils are mostly calcareous, marly clays and clay loams with average to good moisture retention. January lows average 35° F and July highs 96°. Rainfall is slightly under thirty-six inches a year, and the growing season extends 245 days.

The legislature established the county on December 20, 1849, from Navarro County, probably naming it for Richard Ellis, president of the Convention of 1836. It was organized the next February, and Waxahachie became the seat on donated land in August 1850. Early settlers came mostly from the American South. Cattle raising was the most profitable business, thanks to the mild climate and native grasses, and small amounts of cotton went to Houston or Shreveport by ox team.

NOAA’s Storm Events Database lists 142 hail reports in Ellis County from 2016 to 2025, 114 of them an inch across or larger, with stones up to 3.75 inches. The same records show 39 damaging thunderstorm wind reports, with gusts up to about 85 mph, and 9 tornadoes. That is why a patio cover’s roof panels, fasteners and posts here are chosen for hail and wind, not only for shade.