Cañon City

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Fremont County, the county that contains Cañon City.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

River crests

River gauges in Fremont County, the county that contains Cañon City.

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

The drought index is for Fremont County, the county that contains Cañon City.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in Fremont County.

Mapped by CO GS (229), NASA (6).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jun 2, 2002Wildfire$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Iron Mountain fire started in the early afternoon of June 2nd when a barbeque grill was overturned by high winds. The fire quickly spread, and consumed nearly 4,500 acres of pinon, juniper grass, Ponderosa pine and Gambel oak. Eighty eight mostly manufactured homes were destroyed, along with around 100 outbuildings. Many of the houses and outbuildings were uninsured. It cost nearly 1 1/2 million dollars to fight the fire.

2. Jul 5, 2006Flash Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Four to 6 inches of rain fell in approximately 2 hours on already saturated ground and caused significant flash flooding over a part of eastern Fremont county. The drainage basins of Beaver, Brush Hollow and Eightmile Creeks were overwhelmed, while several roads (County Roads 123 and 132, Phantom Canyon Road, State Highway 115) and bridges were washed out or damaged. Brush Hollow Creek was particularly destructive, overwhelming the culvert at State Highway 115 between Penrose and Florence. For a time, the fast flowing water was over 200 yards wide across the road. That portion of Highway 115 over the culvert was completely destroyed and remained closed for six weeks. County Road…

3. Aug 8, 1996Flash Flood$800,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong thunderstorms moved across Eastern Fremont county, producing rainfall totals ranging from 2 1/2 to 5 inches. The heavy rainfall caused extensive damage to structures and roads in Canon City, making this the most costly flood in recent history.

4. Jul 3, 2008Lightning$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning sparked a fire that destroyed two cabins and a vehicle.

5. Feb 22, 1996High Wind, Northern Sangre De Cristo Mountains Above 11000 Ft$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds occurred along the lee slopes of the Rampart Range and Wet Mountains in the morning hours. Winds gusted to over 60 knots throughout much of that area...with a peak gust of 76 knots at Monument in El Paso county. Winds at the Air Force Academy gusted to 72 knots. Damage to roofs...shingles and fences was seen in western Colorado Springs and over 2,600 homes lost power for between 2 and 6 hours. Beulah...in western Pueblo county had a peak wind gust of 64 knots. A few mobile homes in Williamsburg in Fremont county were rolled over and a few people had minor injuries. Around 1,100 customers lost power in Pueblo for an hour. Two mobile homes in transit on Interstate 25 were…

6. Jul 26, 2008Flash Flood$75,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused extreme runoff which undermined and washed away three sections of Copper Gulch Road. Around a dozen motorists were stranded on the road as 4 to 6 feet of water was running across the road. Seven miles of the road was closed during the cleanup and repair. There were no injuries.

7. Aug 1, 1996Flash Flood$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   In 20 minutes, 1 1/2 inches of rain fell and washed out Copper Gulch Road, washing one vehicle off the road into Copper Gulch. The vehicle and two uninjured passengers were washed downstream for one mile. The roadway received damage from the wall of mud and water.

8. Jun 28, 2002Lightning$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A double wide mobile home was struck by lightning and caught fire. Two occupants fled the mobile home, which was totally destroyed.

9. Jul 31, 2012Flash Flood$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused flash flooding south of Florence. The normally dry Mineral Creek flooded and undermined a bridge on State Highway 67, 5 miles south of Florence. The bridge had to be rebuilt. The road was reopened August 26th.

10. Jul 26, 2006Lightning$20,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A house was struck by lightning, but smoke and water damage was mainly confined to the attic area and a small portion of the house.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

107°FJul 11, 1954

All-time low

−30°FFeb 12, 1905

Warmest night

78°FAug 20, 1930

Coldest day

−7°FFeb 5, 1989

Wettest day

4.31 inMay 31, 1894

Snowiest day

22.5 inFeb 21, 1997

Hottest year

1934mean 58.0°F

Coldest year

1993mean 50.7°F

Wettest year

195722.63 in

Driest year

19625.11 in

Snowiest season

77.4 in1996-97

Station Canon City (USC00051294), 5,378 ft elevation, 1.3 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 27, 2026; 97.1% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Fremont County.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USC00051294.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.