Alamosa County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Alamosa County: 0.
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.

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

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.

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.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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

Mapped by CO GS (2).

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. 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…

2. Dec 5, 1996High Wind, Alamosa Vicinity / Central San Luis Valley Below 8500 Ft$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds occurred from the Sangre de Cristo mountains and east from early morning of the 4th through most of the day, as a powerful jet stream moved across Colorado. Sustained winds of 30 to 50 mph prevailed across the entire area before tapering off by late afternoon of the 5th. Damaging wind gusts began early morning of the 5th. Winds gusts to between 70 and 100 mph in the mountains west of and into Colorado Springs. In El Paso County a 70 foot Ponderosa pine fell on a house, and numerous fences and other outbuildings were damaged. Extensive damage occurred across the Wet Mountain Valley. Numerous power lines, smaller buildings, house and vehicle windows, and large trees…

3. Sep 6, 1997Lightning$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a mobile home, setting it on fire. It was totally destroyed.

4. Aug 16, 2008Tornado$8,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A brief tornado destroyed a mobile home in a rural area.

5. Jul 15, 2007Lightning$2,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A lightning strike during the evening set 14 bales of hay on fire just west of Hooper.

6. Jun 6, 2007Wildfire, Alamosa Vicinity / Central San Luis Valley Below 8500 Ft$1,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   High winds across the San Luis Valley knocked over an electrical transmission line on Lane 6, 10 miles southwest of the Great Sand Dunes. The fire eventually consumed 320 acres of grass and brush as it spread to the northeast. No structures were involved, but the Great Sand Dunes was evacuated until 5 p.m.

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

96°FJul 5, 1989

All-time low

−50°FJan 28, 1948

Warmest night

59°F7 times, most recently Jul 29, 2026

Coldest day

0°FDec 7, 1964

Wettest day

1.77 inSep 30, 1959

Snowiest day

15.8 inDec 13, 1967

Hottest year

2025mean 45.1°F

Coldest year

1992mean 38.1°F

Wettest year

196911.55 in

Driest year

19563.40 in

Snowiest season

97.5 in1972-73

Station Alamosa-bergman Field (USW00023061), 7,537 ft elevation, 3.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USW00023061.
• 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.