Mesa County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Mesa 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 (847), UT GRC (9), NASA (5), USGS Seismogenic Mass Movements (2), USGS Conterminous (1).

Deadly landslides

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. Sep 1, 2023Wildfire, Debeque To Silt Corridor$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Spring Creek Fire started in late June 5 miles southwest of Parachute, and grew to 3286 acres before it was finally contained in early September. The cause of the fire is unknown.

2. Jun 24, 2023Wildfire, Debeque To Silt Corridor$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Spring Creek Fire started in late June 5 miles southwest of Parachute, and grew to 3286 acres before it was finally contained in early September. The cause of the fire is unknown.

3. Aug 1, 2023Wildfire, Debeque To Silt Corridor$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Spring Creek Fire started in late June 5 miles southwest of Parachute, and grew to 3286 acres before it was finally contained in early September. The cause of the fire is unknown.

4. Jul 1, 2023Wildfire, Debeque To Silt Corridor$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Spring Creek Fire started in late June 5 miles southwest of Parachute, and grew to 3286 acres before it was finally contained in early September. The cause of the fire is unknown.

5. Oct 19, 2015Hail$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Large hail up to the size of ping pong balls damaged the roofs of many houses.

6. Jun 21, 2007Wildfire, Grand And Battlement Mesas$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A fire which started near the town of Mesa became wind driven in hot and dry conditions and destroyed three houses. Flames were reported to be 50 feet high with the blaze. About 30 acres were charred by the fire.

7. Jul 29, 1998Heavy Rain$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rainfall estimated from radar to be about two inches within an hour fell in the downtown area of Grand Junction. Water accumulated up to three feet deep in places, resulting in flooding of many homes and businesses, as well as some damage to streets.

8. May 2, 2009Hail$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   NWS employees and trained spotters reported large hail across a significant swath of the Grand Valley, from the Redlands area to the downtown Grand Junction area. At least 800 vehicles were damaged, including vehicles parked outside at six vehicle dealerships.

9. Jul 29, 2005Wildfire, Debeque To Silt Corridor$300,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This human-caused wildfire was named the Turkey Track Fire and occurred in Horse Thief Creek Canyon near DeBeque. Backfire from a pickup truck ignited some grass near Horse Canyon Road. The fire quickly grew to 450 acres and changing winds made containment difficult. More than 100 firefighters and two air tankers battled the blaze. One home and a garage were destroyed by the fire. Additionally, a small camper trailer and a water tender truck were overtaken by the flames.

10. Aug 11, 1999Hail$300,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    1.00 inch diameter hail fell across a large swath of the Grand Junction metropolitan area, damaging roofs, siding, doors, etc. The hailstones were clear balls of ice which is unusual in the intermountain region.

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°F2 times, most recently Jul 17, 2023

All-time low

−23°FJan 13, 1963

Warmest night

80°FJul 13, 2026

Coldest day

2°FJan 7, 1913

Wettest day

1.87 inSep 22, 1941

Snowiest day

14.0 inNov 27, 1919

Hottest year

2024mean 57.7°F

Coldest year

1912mean 49.9°F

Wettest year

195715.69 in

Driest year

19003.56 in

Snowiest season

65.0 in1919-20

Station Grand Junction Walker Field (USW00023066), 4,824 ft elevation, 2.9 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1900 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 USW00023066.
• 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.