Grand County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (693), USGS CO Front Range July 1999 (7), 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. Jun 30, 2011Thunderstorm Wind$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Intense straightline winds from a severe thunderstorm knocked a 50-foot tree on to a roof. Fences were also toppled and shingles removed. Several loose objects were lifted and tossed.

2. Jul 30, 2021Flash Flood$25,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Flash flooding along Tonahutu Creek forced the shut down of Grand Lake's hydro plant.

3. Jul 22, 2021Flash Flood$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain produced a debris flow that impacted CO-125 near Mile Marker 7. County Road 21 was also flooded near its confluence. The debris flow forced the closure of the highway until it could be cleared. A mud/debris flow in the Cabin Creek drainage partially buried a parked USFS vehicle, and trapped the employee behind a washed-out road. The Forest Service employee was assessing one of the closed forest service roads when the storm hit, he was found safe and uninjured.

4. Sep 14, 2023Flash Flood$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   CO-125 was closed from milepost zero to 13 for a flash flood and mudslide near milepost 13.

5. Aug 13, 2021Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain produced localized flash flooding in the East Troublesome burn area. Flooding was reported along Gravel Mountain Road from Kauffman Creek. County Roads 458 and 482 were also flooded.

6. Jul 21, 2021Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain produced multiple debris flows over CO-125 between mile markers 10 and 15. The road was closed and some travelers were stranded.

7. Aug 3, 2021Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Grand County experienced periods of heavy rainfall during the evening. The commercial operation at Drowsy Water Ranch was heavily impacted. The Ranch began an evacuation of guests to predetermined safe facilities on the property in accordance with their emergency plans.

8. Aug 22, 2022Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Highway 125 was closed overnight in both directions due to mudslide concerns betweek Trail Creek and Forest Road 112.

9. Jul 21, 2021Flash Flood$5,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain produced localized flash flooding.

10. Jul 5, 2011Flash Flood$5,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The combination of heavy rain and spring runoff caused flash flooding along St. Louis Creek.

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

89°FJul 1, 2002

All-time low

−46°FJan 10, 1962

Warmest night

57°F3 times, most recently Jul 27, 2026

Coldest day

−8°FFeb 6, 1989

Wettest day

1.53 in2 times, most recently Sep 12, 2008

Snowiest day

19.5 inFeb 20, 1986

Hottest year

2025mean 40.0°F

Coldest year

1968mean 34.2°F

Wettest year

198321.00 in

Driest year

20208.95 in

Station Grand Lake 6 Ssw (USC00053500), 8,290 ft elevation, 10.7 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 19, 2026; 97.2% 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 USC00053500.
• 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.