Douglas County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (20), NASA (1), USGS Conterminous (1).

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. Jul 7, 2006Flash Flood$13.3 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Up to 3 inches of heavy rain in the Hayman burn area caused destructive flash flooding along West Creek, between Deckers and Westcreek. Horse Creek, which drains into West Creek, swelled from a normally small creek, into a raging torrent, 25 to 30 feet deep and 300 feet wide. The wall of water damaged or destroyed approximately 30 sections of a 5-mile stretch of State Highway 67, which parallels West Creek. Several homes were extensively damaged or destroyed. In all 86 homes had no access to the highway, resulting in a 125-mile detour for residents of the West Creek subdivision. The sheriff's office used reverse 911 to warn residents to evacuate the area surrounding the…

2. Jun 11, 1999Hail$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail, up to golfball size and accumulating several inches deep, caused a large section of a corrugated metal roof of a greenhouse complex to collapse. About a third of the roof covering the 30,000 square foot building collapsed. Thirty five workers were trapped in the debris, 3 people were treated for minor injuries. Hail piled up 1-2 feet deep blocked the roadways, slowing down emergency vehicles. Damage to the building was estimated to be around $3.0 million.

3. Aug 22, 2000Lightning$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning sparked a blaze which gutted a 10-unit apartment building in Highlands Ranch. Twenty-eight people were left homeless.

4. May 19, 2009Lightning$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck the roof of a residence in Highlands Ranch causing a fire. The home was not a total loss, but the fire caused extensive damage.

5. Jul 2, 2006Lightning$125,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a residence causing extensive damage to the roof as well as the side of the home.

6. Aug 15, 2007Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Severe thunderstorms produced large hail, up to 2 inches in diameter. The most severe weather occurred over southeastern Douglas and southwestern Elbert County, from around Larkspur to Elbert. Large hail in this location caused extensive damage to vehicles. A tornado was also observed, but it did no damage. In Parker, lightning struck a home, causing extensive damage. The bolt entered the house's electrical system and started a fire when sparks from an overloaded outlet fell into a nearby trash can. The ensuing fire damaged the attic and top floor. The strike caused $100,000 in damage and rendered the home uninhabitable for the next 3 months.

7. Jul 12, 2000Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a home is Castle Rock causing extensive damage. The majority of the damage was confined to the roof, attic and second floor.

8. Aug 29, 2002Tornado$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   The first tornado, associated with a multi-vortex storm, touched down briefly near E-470 and South Jordan Road. Some fences were damaged and a few trees were blow down. A few of the homes also sustained minor roof damage.

9. Jul 11, 2011Lightning$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning triggered a fire that causes extensive damage to a home.

10. Aug 22, 2013Flash Flood$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Flash flooding occurred along Interstate 25, south of Castle Rock.

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

102°FJul 11, 2022

All-time low

−37°FJan 6, 1913

Warmest night

72°F2 times, most recently Jul 19, 2022

Coldest day

−8°FDec 23, 1983

Wettest day

7.00 inJun 16, 1965

Snowiest day

36.0 inOct 23, 1906

Hottest year

2021mean 56.3°F

Coldest year

1912mean 43.8°F

Wettest year

196530.39 in

Driest year

20209.81 in

Snowiest season

114.8 in1982-83

Station Castle Rock (USC00051401), 6,156 ft elevation, 6.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to September 30, 2025; 90.2% 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 USC00051401.
• 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.