De Baca County

Every recorded tornado

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

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.

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 USGS Conterminous (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. Jul 20, 2015Thunderstorm Wind$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several rail cars toppled off the tracks of a BNSF train near Fort Sumner.

2. Apr 24, 1997Winter Storm, De Baca$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   An intense upper level system fed by tropical moisture triggered a late season winter storm that covered the northern half of New Mexico with heavy snow and produced near blizzard conditions across the east central section of the state which suffered from widespread power outages and some heavy losses to sheep and cattle. High winds sweeping east to west over the Sandia mountains caused nearly 3 hours of 60 to 80 mph winds into eastern Albuquerque where damage was limited mainly to signs, wood fences and small trees. Only minor roof damage was reported except for heavier damage at one elementary school. Rain changed to heavy wet snow during the night in the east. By early morning…

3. Mar 17, 1999Winter Storm, De Baca$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A slow moving winter storm dumped heavy snow across much of eastern New Mexico closing both Interstate Highways leading north and east from Albuquerque for up to 16 hours and causing travel gridlock throughout the eastern counties and the along the east slopes of the central mountains stretching from Ruidoso and Cloudcroft north to the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque and continuing along the Sangre de Cristo mountains from Santa Fe to Las Vegas and to Raton. Snow ranged from 10 to 16 inches in the high terrain of the central and northeast areas. Amounts averaged 6 inches on the eastern plains with up to 8 to 10 inches from Santa Rosa and Tucumcari south to Clovis and then…

4. Mar 23, 2013High Wind, De Baca County$150,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Approximately 30 to 40 cars of BNSF intermodal cargo train Z-SBDCH17-22 blown off tracks at Pecos River bridge. Entire section of train and dozens of cartons of tuna destroyed.

5. May 26, 2019Thunderstorm Wind$100,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Two large transmission lines were blown down to the north of Fort Sumner. Power outages were reported throughout De Baca County. Damage amounts are a very rough estimate due to an unknown length of wire damage.

6. May 22, 2015Flash Flood$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Spotter reported several arroyos were overflowing their banks and washing out numerous roads. State Road 294 was closed due to flooding near junction with U.S. Highway 60 for several hours after causative event. Most of the flooding subsided by 3 am which allowed some roads to become passable. No damage was reported with this flooding.

7. Jun 30, 2017Thunderstorm Wind$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several roadways signs along U.S. Highway 60 between Tolar and Taiban were blown away due to severe winds.

8. Mar 26, 2016High Wind, De Baca County$50,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   A semi was blown over 8 miles west of Fort Sumner along U.S. Highway 60. Travel was impacted as officials turned the vehicle upright and cleaned up the roadway.

9. May 30, 1997Hail$30,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Billard ball size hail damaged cars along Highway 60 east of Yeso.

10. Jun 5, 2003Thunderstorm Wind$25,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    Ranch house roof lost to high winds as line of thunderstorms moved east.

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

112°FJun 12, 2022

All-time low

−15°FFeb 3, 2011

Warmest night

76°FJul 20, 2022

Coldest day

9°F2 times, most recently Feb 15, 2021

Wettest day

5.63 inOct 4, 2017

Snowiest day

8.0 in2 times, most recently Jan 3, 2015

Hottest year

2024mean 62.1°F

Coldest year

1979mean 55.8°F

Wettest year

201526.07 in

Driest year

20125.12 in

Snowiest season

33.1 in2014-15

Station Sumner Lake (USC00298596), 4,306 ft elevation, 12.4 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1975 to October 27, 2026; 95.2% 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 USC00298596.
• 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.