Park County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Park 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 (299), NASA (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. Aug 23, 2008Tornado$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A waterspout transitioned to a landspout and caused damage to several recreational vehicles. Several peopled suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

2. Jun 16, 2015Flood$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Eleven Mile Canyon was evacuated and closed down for several days due to floodwaters threatening to wash out a popular road. The flooding was the result of an above average winter snowpack from heavy late season rain and snow events in May.

3. Jun 26, 2008Lightning$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning sparked a fire east of Guffey, in Park County. The combination of dry conditions and gusty winds allowed the fire to spread. It eventually consumed 1,115 acres. A shed and a camper trailer were also lost in the blaze. ||Severe thunderstorms produced several small landspout tornadoes in Washington County, and intense thunderstorm winds in Elbert County. In Weld County near Frederick, strong winds from a dry microburst snapped three utility poles, and downed electrical lines. As a result, a small fire was started near Interstate 25 and State Highway 52. The fire damaged irrigation equipment in a nearby field and some power poles.

4. Jul 16, 2018Flash Flood$10,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A brief period of heavy rain produced flash flooding near the Weston Pass burn scar. The flooding impacted Park County Road 22 as well at U.S. Highway 285.

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

   Heavy rain near Weston Pass caused localized flash flooding along State Highway 9 in southern Park County. An SUV got stuck in the flood waters but no injuries were reported.

6. Aug 2, 2007Flash Flood$1,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Heavy rain caused localized flash flooding in northeast Park County. A trained spotter measured 3.76 inches of rainfall in one hour. Flash flooding was reported along Deer Creek. County Road 43 became impassable at Buggy Whip, above State Highway 285. Water was also reported in a nearby residence.

7. Jun 26, 2010Lightning$1,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning struck a transmission line in Park County which caused an outage that lasted for about 45 minutes.

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

85°FJul 22, 1984

All-time low

−28°F2 times, most recently Feb 2, 2011

Warmest night

58°FJun 9, 1981

Coldest day

−5°F2 times, most recently Feb 2, 2011

Wettest day

4.28 inMay 7, 1969

Snowiest day

51.0 inMar 18, 2003

Hottest year

2001mean 39.6°F

Coldest year

1997mean 33.3°F

Wettest year

199933.61 in

Driest year

197812.10 in

Snowiest season

207.7 in2006-07

Station Cabin Creek (USC00051186), 10,020 ft elevation, 24.6 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1968 to October 26, 2026; 97.4% 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 USC00051186.
• 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.