Teller County

Every recorded tornado

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

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 (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 1, 2002Wildfire$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Hayman Fire, largest in Colorado this century, was fully contained on July 2nd.

2. Jun 9, 2002Wildfire$6.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The largest wildfire in Colorado this century began on the evening of June 8th in Park county and spreads into Teller county early on the morning of the 9th. The wildfire was not fully contained until July 2nd. The Hayman Fire was allegedly started by a U.S. Forest Service employee. The fire consumed 43,000 acres of forest and meadows in Teller county generally north of a line from around 8 miles north northwest of Florissant to 8 miles north northwest of Woodland Park. Eighty eight residences were destroyed, along with around 200 other structures. The smoke plume caused heavy concentrations of smoke across Teller and El Paso county from time to time during the blaze. Besides the…

3. Jul 16, 2004Flash Flood$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rounds of showers and heavy rain from strong thunderstorms caused numerous flash floods...mainly across the Hayman burn scar in the northwest part of the county. Especially hard hit was the road to the Turkey Rock Ranch Estates in far northwest Teller county. Others road affected in the Hayman burn scar were Forest Road 200 and 360 around Lutheran Valley Retreat, and High Road and Shelf Road in the southwest part of the county. Shelf Road was closed for around one month. At least 6 privately owned dams broke, and water flowed over another. A state of emergency was declared by Teller county officials through the weekend.

4. Apr 16, 2002Wildfire$40,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Strong winds caused a tree branch to hit a power line, which ignited a blaze in Teller county. The fire grew to between 100 and 200 acres before it was put out. One structure was destroyed.

5. Aug 23, 2008Tornado$20,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A tornado occurred in northeast Teller County...destroying scores of trees...and narrowly missing a subdivision.

6. Jun 17, 2014Dust Devil$15,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A powerful dust devil ripped the roof off a feed and ranch supply store and flipped a trailer on its side in Florissant.

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

   Widespread very heavy rain occurred across portions of Teller and El Paso Counties, and eastern Pueblo County. Woodland Park (Teller County) reported around three inches of rain in around an hour. This caused a wave of flood waters to move down Fountain Creek. The flood wave took over three hours to reach Manitou Springs (El Paso County). Some bridges over the creek (Teller County) were damaged, houses were flooded in the Crystola area (El Paso County), along with two restaurants in Green Mountain Falls and Cascade (El Paso County). There was minor flooding from Cascade to near Manitou Springs, where an exit road to Manitou Springs was flooded for a time. Flash flooding was also…

8. May 8, 2015Thunderstorm Wind$4,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A severe storm produced damaging microbursts just north of Cripple Creek. Scores of pine and aspen trees were leveled, and there was minor damage to a house and surrounding outbuildings and outdoor furniture. The damage path was around 3/4 of a mile long and at a maximum 750 yards wide.

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°F2 times, most recently Jul 8, 2013

All-time low

−35°FJan 12, 1963

Warmest night

60°FJul 8, 1984

Coldest day

−11°F2 times, most recently Feb 4, 1982

Wettest day

3.45 inAug 1, 2021

Snowiest day

42.0 inApr 23, 1997

Hottest year

2017mean 43.1°F

Coldest year

1985mean 33.0°F

Wettest year

196931.91 in

Driest year

199811.28 in

Snowiest season

271.3 in1994-95

Station Ruxton Park (USC00057309), 9,060 ft elevation, 11.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1959 to October 26, 2026; 95.9% 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 USC00057309.
• 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.