Garfield County, Colorado: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Garfield County, Colorado has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 64.5 out of 100, higher than about 64% of US counties, with landslides, wildfires and avalanches scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $30 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 10 federal disaster declarations that included Garfield County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5335-CO (Pine Gulch Fire, declared 19 August 2020). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Garfield County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Colorado All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 61,566 Buildings worth $14 billion Area 2,986 sq mi Risk rank in Colorado 15 of 64 FIPS 08045
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively High | 99.1 | $1.8 million | about 3.9 a year | — |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 91.0 | $1.9 million | about once every 490 years | — |
| Avalanche | Relatively High | 89.6 | $2.0 million | about 1.3 a year | 40 |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 82.1 | $986,445 | about 56 a year | 126,842 strikes |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 77.5 | $21 million | about 1.7 a year | 47 |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 62.0 | $625,628 | about once every 917 years | — |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 52.1 | $18 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 42.7 | $105,386 | about 67 a year | 2,296 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 36.4 | $234,099 | about once every 23 years | 0.7 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 18.3 | $16,885 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 11.7 | $126,033 | about once every 21 years | 0.9 |
| Winter weather | Very Low | 10.5 | $9,902 | about 35 a year | 671 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 9.8 | $85,635 | about once every 3.5 years | 11 |
| Hail | Very Low | 9.5 | $35,708 | about once every 7.8 years | 4.9 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 9.2 | $68,137 | about once every 12 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 10
Most common: Fire 7, Coastal Storm 1, Flood 1, Drought 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1980s | 1 | Flood |
| 2000s | 6 | Fire ×5, Coastal Storm |
| 2020s | 2 | Fire ×2 |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Garfield 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 0
No tornado in NOAA's Storm Prediction Center record touched Garfield County between 1950 and 2025. That does not mean one cannot happen.
How Garfield County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield County (this page) | — | Relatively Low | 64.5 | Landslide |
| Rio Blanco County | 50 km | Very Low | 37.6 | Landslide |
| Mesa County | 81 km | Relatively Low | 75.1 | Landslide |
| Delta County | 82 km | Relatively Low | 51.3 | Landslide |
| Pitkin County | 95 km | Relatively Low | 54.1 | Avalanche |
| Eagle County | 104 km | Relatively Low | 76.2 | Avalanche |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Colorado, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 15.4 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Very Low 12.3 |
| Community risk factor | 0.85 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $30 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 Garfield County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Colorado · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Avalanche: Official warnings now
- 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 Garfield County
What natural disasters is Garfield County, Colorado most at risk from?
Garfield County, Colorado has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 64.5 out of 100, higher than about 64% of US counties, with landslides, wildfires and avalanches scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $30 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Garfield County had?
OpenFEMA lists 10 federal disaster declarations that included Garfield County since 1977, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5335-CO (Pine Gulch Fire, declared 19 August 2020). Another 12 Colorado declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Garfield County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has no tornado on record touching Garfield County from 1950 to 2025.
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.