Sandoval County, New Mexico: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Sandoval County, New Mexico has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 77.0 out of 100, higher than about 77% of US counties, with landslides, wildfires and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $32 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 20 federal disaster declarations that included Sandoval County since 1973, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3660-NM (Severe Storms and Flooding, declared 26 October 2026). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Sandoval County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for New Mexico All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 148,310 Buildings worth $25 billion Area 3,752 sq mi Risk rank in New Mexico 14 of 33 FIPS 35043
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 Moderate | 94.1 | $89,959 | about 1.9 a year | — |
| Wildfire | Relatively Moderate | 93.6 | $2.2 million | about once every 510 years | — |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 90.3 | $1.1 million | about 65 a year | 422,454 strikes |
| Earthquake | Relatively Low | 88.7 | $3.7 million | about once every 341 years | — |
| Inland flooding | Relatively Moderate | 84.3 | $21 million | about 2.4 a year | 66 |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 79.9 | $1.3 million | about once every 1.4 years | 13 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Moderate | 79.3 | $171,931 | about 18 a year | 350 |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 74.4 | $582,285 | about once every 1.9 years | 20 |
| Drought | Relatively Moderate | 72.9 | $527,923 | about 127 a year | 3,843 |
| Strong wind | Relatively Low | 39.6 | $353,110 | about once every 4.9 years | 8 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 36.1 | $147 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 24.0 | $261,792 | about once every 18 years | 1.1 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 23.8 | $283,054 | about once every 5.2 years | 8 |
| Ice storm | Very Low | 17.7 | $10,967 | about once every 67 years | 0 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 8.8 | — | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 2 |
| 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 20
Most common: Fire 9, Flood 5, Severe Storm 4, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 2 | Drought, Flood |
| 1990s | 1 | Severe Storm |
| 2000s | 5 | Fire ×3, Severe Storm, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 10 | Fire ×5, Flood ×3, Severe Storm ×2 |
| 2020s | 2 | Flood, Fire |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Sandoval County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3229-NM): 33 New Mexico counties designated.
- Severe Fire Threats (2000, EM-3154-NM): 33 New Mexico counties designated.
- Severe Storms, Flooding, and Mudslides (2013, DR-4152-NM): 23 New Mexico 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. New Mexico also had 14 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 13
| Tornadoes touching the county | 13 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F1 ×1 |
| Peak month | May (6) |
| Deadliest | — |
| Longest path | 21 May 2018, EF0, 3.8 mi path |
| Most recent | 19 Aug 2025, unrated, 0.7 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 0 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
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 Sandoval County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandoval County (this page) | — | Relatively Low | 77.0 | Landslide |
| Los Alamos County | 54 km | Very Low | 3.6 | Wildfire |
| Bernalillo County | 73 km | Relatively High | 94.4 | Winter weather |
| Santa Fe County | 83 km | Relatively Moderate | 86.0 | Wildfire |
| Rio Arriba County | 93 km | Relatively Low | 80.5 | Wildfire |
| Valencia County | 108 km | Relatively Moderate | 82.3 | Earthquake |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in New Mexico, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Moderate 59.0 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Moderate 41.9 |
| Community risk factor | 1.22 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $32 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 Sandoval County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for New Mexico · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Lightning: Weather alerts for New Mexico
- 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 Sandoval County
What natural disasters is Sandoval County, New Mexico most at risk from?
Sandoval County, New Mexico has a Relatively Low natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 77.0 out of 100, higher than about 77% of US counties, with landslides, wildfires and lightning scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $32 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Sandoval County had?
OpenFEMA lists 20 federal disaster declarations that included Sandoval County since 1973, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is EM-3660-NM (Severe Storms and Flooding, declared 26 October 2026). Another 14 New Mexico declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Sandoval County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Sandoval 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.