Teller County, Colorado: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Teller County, Colorado has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 38.8 out of 100, higher than about 38% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $17 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Teller 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 13 tornadoes touching Teller County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for Colorado All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 24,661 Buildings worth $4.6 billion Area 565 sq mi Risk rank in Colorado 31 of 64 FIPS 08119
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 97.0 | $11 million | about once every 84 years | — |
| Landslide | Relatively Moderate | 92.2 | $106,896 | about once every 2.7 years | — |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 83.1 | $1.2 million | about 69 a year | 77,114 strikes |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 78.8 | $1.1 million | about 6 a year | 227 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 74.1 | $220,196 | about 18 a year | 349 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 36.8 | $6 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Tornado | Relatively Low | 28.0 | $621,116 | about once every 3.8 years | 9 |
| Earthquake | Very Low | 23.3 | $52,379 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Very Low | 15.9 | $2.7 million | about once every 1.2 years | 24 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 13.3 | $149,944 | about once every 1.5 years | 27 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 12.9 | $18 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 8.5 | $5,827 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Cold wave | Very Low | 6.2 | $44,575 | about once every 1.8 years | 11 |
| Heat wave | Very Low | 2.4 | $19 | about once every 158 years | 0.1 |
| Drought | No Rating | 0.0 | — | about 38 a year | 1,127 |
| 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: Fire 4, Flood 2, Snowstorm 2, Coastal Storm 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 1 | Tornado |
| 1970s | 2 | Drought, Flood |
| 2000s | 5 | Fire ×2, Snowstorm ×2, Coastal Storm |
| 2010s | 2 | Fire ×2 |
| 2020s | 1 | Flood |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Teller 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 13
| Tornadoes touching the county | 13 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×1 |
| Peak month | June (5) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 8 Jun 2014, EF2, 7 mi path |
| Most recent | 30 Jul 2025, EF1, 0.8 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
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 Teller County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teller County (this page) | — | Very Low | 38.8 | Wildfire |
| Fremont County | 52 km | Relatively Low | 68.6 | Lightning |
| Douglas County | 54 km | Relatively Moderate | 88.7 | Lightning |
| Park County | 55 km | Very Low | 22.2 | Wildfire |
| El Paso County | 55 km | Relatively Moderate | 94.1 | Winter weather |
| Jefferson County | 79 km | Relatively High | 94.9 | Hail |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in Colorado, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Very Low 10.6 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 46.7 |
| Community risk factor | 0.75 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $17 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 Teller County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for Colorado · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Lightning: Weather alerts for Colorado
- 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 Teller County
What natural disasters is Teller County, Colorado most at risk from?
Teller County, Colorado has a Very Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 38.8 out of 100, higher than about 38% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $17 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Teller County had?
OpenFEMA lists 11 federal disaster declarations that included Teller 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 Teller County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Teller 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.