Prowers County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Prowers County: 2.
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.

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.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. May 29, 2001Hail$5.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The thunderstorms that spawned seven tornadoes west of Lamar, brought giant hail between golf ball and baseball size to Lamar.

2. Mar 28, 2007Tornado$4.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   With a maximum rating of EF3 and a maximum damage path width of 900 yards, the tornado raced through Holly, causing two fatalities and nine injuries.

3. Apr 27, 2012Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   This long-track tornado began southeast of Lamar and damaged an electrical substation along county road EE. A power outage in the Lamar area lasted for over 12 hours. Two communication towers were downed...and four dwellings were destroyed.

4. Apr 27, 2012Tornado$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A hog farm was struck with 18 hog barns destroyed. There were no hogs on the farm at the time.

5. May 23, 2010Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damaging large hail occurred in Lamar for around 15 minutes.

6. May 29, 2001Tornado$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms spawned six brief tornadoes and an F3 tornado within a three mile radius of the Lamar Municipal Airport between 1049 MST and 1231 MST just west of Lamar. The F3 tornado, which showed supercellular characteristics, completely destroyed a modular home and five vehicles in its vicinity, and damaged two other homes nearby. Eleven power poles were destroyed as well.

7. Aug 9, 2010Thunderstorm Wind$80,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   South of Holly, a powerful microburst flipped over five center pivot irrigation systems both west and east of Highway 89. Two grain bins were destroyed and one severely damaged. Several vehicles at houses just north of the grain bins had their windows blown out, and a camper trailer was toppled on its side. Twenty power poles had to be replaced along County Road DD west of Highway 89 around a mile south of Holly.

8. Jul 15, 2016Thunderstorm Wind$70,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A house, outbuildings and grain storage bins were severely damaged. The residents were briefly trapped in a storm cellar.

9. Jun 11, 2009Hail$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A long-lasting supercell tracked across southeast Colorado, producing large hail, high winds, and two short-lived tornadoes.

10. Aug 28, 2002Flash Flood$50,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Heavy rain from severe thunderstorms caused flash flooding from the Willow Creek drainage basin in Lamar southward. A rental store sustained heavy flood damage between 7:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., as water was up to three feet deep on the property. A local golf course was closed because bridges and crossings over the creek were washed out. The greens suffered hail damage. Mud was deep in many streets on the south and east sides of Lamar in the Willow Creek drainage. Parts of highway 287, south of Lamar, were closed due to high water.

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

111°F4 times, most recently Jun 28, 2012

All-time low

−30°FFeb 12, 1899

Warmest night

81°F2 times, most recently Jun 27, 2012

Coldest day

−3°FFeb 3, 1996

Wettest day

5.64 inMay 29, 1964

Snowiest day

22.0 inOct 26, 1997

Hottest year

1934mean 59.7°F

Coldest year

1992mean 50.3°F

Wettest year

200626.20 in

Driest year

18936.27 in

Snowiest season

75.0 in2006-07

Station Lamar (USC00054770), 3,627 ft elevation, 4.5 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1893 to October 20, 2026; 98.7% 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 USC00054770.
• 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.
• 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.