Costilla County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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.

Volcanoes within 100 miles

1. U.S. volcanoes within 100 miles, from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. The threat category is the USGS 2018 National Volcanic Threat Assessment, which ranks volcanoes by how hazardous their past eruptions were and how many people and how much infrastructure lie near them. It is not a forecast of eruption.

USGS Volcano Hazards Program, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by CO GS (267), NASA (3).

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. Aug 7, 1996Hail$450,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds combined with the great volume of hail to produce extensive damage to structures and crops.

2. Apr 19, 1996High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong jet stream wind, mixing with a cold front brought high winds to the Colorado Springs area in the morning. Winds gusted to between 65 and 98 mph. Winds gusted to 77 mph at Peterson Air Force Base and the Colorado Springs Airport. A piece of metal blew against some power lines...causing two short power outages in Manitou Springs. A fire...spread quickly by the high winds...destroyed a house in Colorado Springs.

3. Feb 22, 1996High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$250,000
   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…

4. Oct 29, 1996High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A strong low pressure system moved quickly to the northeast across Colorado, producing sustained high winds and damaging gusts over an area that stretched from the Sangre De Cristo Mountains east to the Colorado/Kansas border. Numerous trees were uprooted, and fences, signs, and power lines were taken down in the Colorado Springs and Pueblo areas. Peak gusts reported were 80 knots in Colorado Springs, 70 knots across the Rampart Range west of Colorado Springs, and 61 knots in Pueblo and across Cucharas Pass, in extreme southern Colorado.

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. Sep 6, 2019Flash Flood$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Costillo County Emergency Manager reported flash flood and rock slide in Forbes Park, CO off the spring burn scar. Several dozen 36 inch boulders moved down the hill and a newly built retention pond was nearly blown out by the force of the water. 15-20 tons of sediment now fill the new pond.

7. Dec 5, 1996High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$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…

8. Jun 21, 1996High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Gusty winds brought down the new Western Pacific Airline's maintainence hanger, under construction near the Colorado Springs Airport.

9. Aug 14, 2009Flash Flood$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The San Luis Peoples Ditch had two breaches, flooding two properties. Some house experience flooding of basements and crawl spaces. Several county roads were washed out.

10. Jun 6, 2007High Wind, Southern San Luis Valley$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    A strong weather system generated widespread high winds over southern Colorado. The damaging winds began during the last morning across the San Luis Valley and surrounding mountains. Wind gusts up to 75 mph occurred, with widespread tree damage and damage to fences and outbuildings. Around 2 p.m. MDT, a 69 kilovolt line between Antonito and Romeo, in the southern San Luis Valley, was taken down, and nearly 3000 people were without power for a time. The high winds also started a wildfire at the Great Sand Dunes early in the afternoon. Farther east, the most extensive damage occurred in the Wet Mountains in Custer County. Forest Road 369 was closed due to a vast blow down of mature…

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°FJun 29, 1982

All-time low

−25°FJan 13, 1963

Warmest night

66°FJul 21, 2026

Coldest day

−4°FFeb 2, 2011

Wettest day

2.80 inJul 28, 2007

Snowiest day

18.5 inMar 19, 2003

Hottest year

2018mean 47.3°F

Coldest year

1992mean 41.3°F

Wettest year

202421.42 in

Driest year

19515.85 in

Snowiest season

86.0 in1991-92

Station Great Sand Dunes Np & Preserve (USC00053541), 8,183 ft elevation, 30.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1950 to September 30, 2026; 98.4% 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 USC00053541.
• 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.
• Volcanoes USGS Volcano Hazards Program, U.S. volcanoes and 2018 threat assessment.
• 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.