High-Impact Weather and Climate Events

High-impact events cause the majority of societal costs related to weather and climate. They provoke societal responses that can either enhance or detract from long-term adaptation to climate risk. In 2015, WWA began a new research focus on extremes that is designed to place high-impact events in the context of historical climate variability and projected climate change, assess how the risk of these events varies over time and space, and examine how high-impact events interact with place-based vulnerability.

The High-Impact Events Database has 280+ historical high-impact weather and climate events in our three-state region, and a complementary set of regional event maps showing how risk varies seasonally across the region for different types of weather and climate events.

The database is a curated collection of significant weather and climate-related events in the Western Water Assessment region. The types of events included are: avalanches, cold waves, dam failures, droughts, floods, hail, high winds, landslides, tornadoes, wildfires, and winter storms. We search federal, state, county, and local databases, library archives, news accounts, and other sources for current and historic notable weather and climate-related events in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This database is not a scientific collection of extreme events. The majority of events included in this database are incidents that were identified as remarkable by one of the sources listed above.

All CPI-Adjusted Damage costs are 2022 values, calculated from: https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/. CPI-Adjusted Damage costs are unavailable before the year 1913.

WWA High-Impact Events Database Map (1864-2021)

This map is a visual representation of all the high-impact events in our database by county from 1864-2021. The counties with no data represent counties with no events explicitly reported in the database.

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State	County	City	Date	Event Type	Deaths Sort ascending	CPI Adjusted	Unadjusted
Colorado	Lake	Leadville	February 01, 1885	Avalanche	10			Summary "Eleven miners who lived and worked about 15 miles northwest of Leadville were swept away when their cabin was buried in an avalanche. One survived. A New York Times article from that time says rescuers were met by a crowd of miners, who told them it wouldn't be possible to reach the buried men in the soft snow." - 9News
Utah			January 01, 1949	Winter Storm, High Wind	10			Summary "Utah's most severe winter since 1899 ... It was the coldest winter on record, with record amounts of seasonal snowfall ... Nearly a 25 percent loss in some livestock herds reported. Many fruit trees were killed. Wildlife struggled for existence. Tourist trade reached an all-time low, and 10 people died from exposure." - Western Regional Climate Center
Colorado	Adams, Arapahoe, Bent, Boulder, Douglas, Denver, El Paso, Gilpin, Jefferson, Larimer, Logan, Pueblo, Morgan, Weld	Loveland, Lyons, Longmont, Jamestown, Boulder, Estes Park, Morrison, Evans, Colorado Springs	September 12, 2013	Flood	10	$2,509,440,000.00	$2,000,000,000.00	Summary A near-stationary weather system funneled copious subtropical moisture into the Front Range, leading to one-week rainfall totals of 10-18" over a large area. Creeks and rivers from the Wyoming border to Colorado Springs flooded, with the worst flooding on the Big Thompson River, Little Thompson River, St. Vrain Creek, Lefthand Creek, and Coal Creek. Over 20,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Incredible and widespread damage to civil infrastructure (roads, bridges, water conveyance and treatment) on the Front Range.
Colorado	Washington	Thurman	August 10, 1924	Tornado	10
Colorado	Clear Creek	Silver Plume	February 12, 1899	Avalanche	10			Summary "Thirteen miners were caught in this slide, 10 of whom died. Rescuers said in an Aspen Daily Times article at the time that it was "almost impossible" to search for survivors due to drifts "filled with timbers and boulders." The slide also swept away $50,000 worth of ore stored in the mine houses, as well as several buildings. Ultimately, the town dump saved the nearby town by altering the course of the avalanche before it reached the most populated area." - 9News
Colorado	Statewide		June 01, 1983	Flood	10	$45,170,900.00	$15,392,000.00
Colorado	Park		January 01, 1877	Avalanche	8			Summary "A snowslide that crashed down the valley near the Whale mine buried cabins, killing a family and four others. The storm nearly killed another man named George Cardier, who relayed his experience in the Colorado Miner, saying the force of the avalanche knocked off his socks and boots. Cardier survived when the cabins created a barrier around him, diverting the snow." - 9News
Colorado	San Miguel	Telluride	December 01, 1883	Avalanche	8
Wyoming	Platte		May 31, 1935	Flood	8	$26,669,300.00	$1,250,000.00
Utah	Statewide		June 01, 1983	Flood	7	$880,410,000.00	$300,000,000.00	Summary Record snowpack resulted in severe flooding from extensive runoff. Flooding occurred all along the Wasatch Front, damaging homes and public property. Creeks and rivers across the state saw record flows, including five of the six creeks in Salt Lake Valley. In June, high waters caused the failure of a dam near Delta, the resulting flood destroyed the town of Deseret. Seven people died in the floodwaters.

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High-Impact Weather and Climate Events

WWA High-Impact Events Database Map (1864-2021)

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