High-Impact Weather and Climate Events

"An unprecedented storm pounded Moab for nearly three hours. A mixture of flood water, mud, rocks and entire trees gushed over bridges in Mill Creek in Moab. Cars floated through the busiest streets in town, and restaurant customers waded through knee-deep water. The flash floods filled dozens of homes and almost every business on Main Street. Moab's mayor has declared a state of emergency after dozens of businesses and homes were flooded. All Moab trails, street entrances and bridges are closed and extremely dangerous as crews and the community work to clean up. And some are still without water." - KSL.com

"Communities around Drake and Glen Haven in Larimer County reported destructive flooding flowing down from the Cameron Peak Fire burn scar. The fire burned less than a mile from the communities surrounding the town of Glen Haven. Two years later, the river is still black, flooding every time it rains. 

'This is the eighth time this summer,' said Jim Morton, who lives just outside Glen Haven. 'Prior to the fire it wasn’t an issue, but that burn scar just won’t hold the water.' The front of Morton's property was completely covered in silt and ash that flowed down from the burn scar, flooding outside the banks of the river. Large boulders were tossed around the area, showing the power of the water. 

So far this year, the National Weather Service has issued 31 flash flood warnings for the Glen Haven area, including 10 this month alone." - 9News

"Intense rain hit Colorado Monday afternoon and caused a lot of flooding in a short period of time. Highlands Ranch, Aurora and other parts of the southeastern zone of the Denver metro area saw a storm blow through that brought anywhere from 1 to over 2 inches of rain in less than an hour. A lot of these areas saw that rain in under 30 minutes! Flash Flood Warnings covered all of northern Douglas County and Aurora." - CBS Colorado

"A severe storm dumped several inches of hail on Estes Park Wednesday night, stalling traffic and prompting the need for snowplows to clean up the mess. The storm hit just before 10 p.m. with hail that was likely smaller than 1 inch, but there was a lot of it – enough to trap vehicles on East Elkhorn Avenue (U.S. 36)." - 9News

"Flooding hit the Crystal Mountain area of Larimer County, about 100 miles north of Denver, submerging roads and bridges. The sheriff’s office had received reports of a camping trailer containing a woman and girl that had swept away. The authorities found the two of them dead on Friday evening.

Floods also destroyed one home and caused minor damage to at least five others, according to the authorities. The U.S. Forest Service has temporarily closed large swaths of land in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests nearby, and crews stayed out until late Saturday evening to repair roads." - The New York Times

"Unprecedented precipitation and flooding clobbered Yellowstone National Park starting Sunday, destroying bridges, making roads impassable, stranding scores of people and wreaking untold havoc on infrastructure within Northwest Wyoming’s tourism engine. The scope of the damage prompted park officials to close all park entrances Monday. 

A U.S. Geological Survey gauge on the Lamar River near the Tower Ranger Station tells the tale of the remarkable weather event. The tributary to the Yellowstone River on Monday topped 18,000 cubic feet of water per second, which surpassed the previous daily record by nearly 50%. The Lamar rose so high that its peak water level, 17 feet over the riverbed, surpassed the gauge’s “operational limit” by 2 feet, and the water level was 5 feet higher than during any other time in 82 years of recordkeeping.

The Yellowstone River water level at the Corwin gauge approached 14 feet, shattering a 104-year-old record by 2.5 feet, according to its USGS monitor." - WyoFile

The Marshall Fire is the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, in terms of cost and structures lost, as of 2021.

See our Marshall Fire Briefing for an overview of the event. The briefing represents our state of knowledge as it exists January 13, 2022 and is provided as a service to place the disastrous fire into a climate and human context.

A severe storm with hurricane-force gusts affected Colorado and Wyoming over the course of a few days. This storm also brought the first tornado ever reported in Minnesota during the month of December, according to NOAA data.

CO: "The National Weather Service office in Pueblo recorded a 107 mph wind gust in Lamar shortly before 9 a.m." - CBS Denver

WY: "A National Weather Service peak wind report released Sunday morning showed a 118 mph gust blasted Clark, a small community in the northern part of the state, north of Cody." - Deseret News

In October, a pocket of extreme drought develops in northeast CO. This pocket expands and covers several counties in December.

"Flash flooding at an Emery County mine resulted in the death of at least one person when water and debris swept him six miles downstream." - KSL News Radio