Douglas County, Colorado: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Douglas County, Colorado has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 88.7 out of 100, higher than about 88% of US counties, with lightning, hail and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $114 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Douglas County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4731-CO (Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes, declared 25 August 2023). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 65 tornadoes touching Douglas County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 357,700 Buildings worth $73 billion Area 851 sq mi Risk rank in Colorado 9 of 64 FIPS 08035
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning | Very High | 99.3 | $7.5 million | about 59 a year | 293,036 strikes |
| Hail | Relatively High | 98.6 | $13 million | about 7.5 a year | 284 |
| Wildfire | Relatively High | 98.4 | $26 million | about once every 160 years | — |
| Winter weather | Very High | 96.6 | $1.3 million | about 18 a year | 343 |
| Tornado | Relatively High | 93.4 | $14 million | about once every 1.3 years | 36 |
| Strong wind | Relatively High | 93.0 | $3.7 million | about once a year | 40 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 86.9 | $44 million | about 1.4 a year | 38 |
| Landslide | Relatively Low | 78.2 | $19,682 | about once every 1.2 years | — |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 64.2 | $85 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 63.8 | $2.5 million | about once a year | 18 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 62.4 | $779,414 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively Low | 54.8 | $702,307 | about once every 4.2 years | 3 |
| Ice storm | Relatively Low | 42.6 | $90,325 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 34.5 | $57,457 | about 24 a year | 770 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 9.6 | $11 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 11
Most common: Flood 3, Fire 3, Snowstorm 2, Coastal Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 2 | Flood, Tornado |
| 1970s | 2 | Drought, Flood |
| 2000s | 6 | Fire ×3, Snowstorm ×2, Coastal Storm |
| 2020s | 1 | Flood |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Douglas County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3224-CO): 64 Colorado counties designated.
- Wildfires (2002, DR-1421-CO): 58 Colorado counties designated.
- Drought (1977, EM-3025-CO): 42 Colorado counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. Colorado also had 12 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 65
| Tornadoes touching the county | 65 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×2 |
| Peak month | June (23) |
| Deadliest | 16 Jun 1965, F1, 1 mi path, 0 killed, 4 injured |
| Longest path | 22 Jun 2023, EF1, 6.3 mi path |
| Most recent | 14 Jul 2025, EF1, 0.3 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 6 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 36 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | 9 | 8 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How Douglas County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County (this page) | — | Relatively Moderate | 88.7 | Lightning |
| Jefferson County | 40 km | Relatively High | 94.9 | Hail |
| Denver County | 48 km | Relatively High | 95.2 | Hail |
| Teller County | 54 km | Very Low | 38.8 | Wildfire |
| Arapahoe County | 62 km | Relatively Moderate | 93.8 | Hail |
| El Paso County | 65 km | Relatively Moderate | 94.1 | Winter weather |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Colorado, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 73.7 |
| Community risk factor | 0.70 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $114 million |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for Douglas County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Colorado · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Lightning: Weather alerts for Colorado
- Hail: Weather alerts for Colorado
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets 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).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. 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).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about Douglas County
What natural disasters is Douglas County, Colorado most at risk from?
Douglas County, Colorado has a Relatively Moderate natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 88.7 out of 100, higher than about 88% of US counties, with lightning, hail and wildfires scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $114 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Douglas County had?
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Douglas County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4731-CO (Severe Storms, Flooding, and Tornadoes, declared 25 August 2023). Another 12 Colorado declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Douglas County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 65 tornadoes touching Douglas County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 16 Jun 1965, F1, 1 mi path, 0 killed, 4 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.