Hail, fire and #drought: #Colorado behind only #Kansas in spike of major disasters past 20 years

Click the link to read the article on The Denver Post website (Aldo Svali). Here’s an excerpt:

Colorado over the past 20 years has suffered more major natural disasters than Florida and is among nine states where the number of events causing $1 billion or more in damage has more than tripled over the past 40 years, according to a new study from QuoteWizard, an insurance policy search engine. Between 1982 and 2001, Colorado recorded a dozen major natural disasters, but in the two decades that followed, it recorded 45, an increase of 275%. Only Kansas, despite its much smaller population and economy, had a bigger gain at 288%, going from 16 to 62 major disasters.

“Natural disasters of this magnitude used to happen infrequently in Colorado – about one every other year. Now, they are happening twice a year (on average),” said Nick VinZant, an analyst with QuoteWizard in an email.

A larger population spread across larger swaths of the state, not to mention more expensive cars, homes and infrastructure to replace when things go wrong only offer a partial explanation. The blame mostly comes down to much more unstable weather patterns.

“Climate change is the main reason why Colorado has seen such a significant increase in major natural disasters. Storms are more severe, the wildfire season is longer and drought has become more common,” VinZant said.

Hail Wheat Ridge May 8, 2015. Photo credit TreeRootCO.

The 57 major natural disasters in Colorado going back to 1982 cost around $55 billion, according to QuoteWizard. Around half involved punishing storms, like the monster that hit metro Denver on May 8, 2017, pouring down stones the size of golf balls and baseballs. Other bad years for hail included 2016, 2014, 2012, 2011 and 2009.

Ranking and time evolution of summer (June–August) drought severity as indicated by negative 0–200 cm soil moisture anomalies. Maps show how gridded summer drought severity in each year from 2000–2021 ranked among all years 1901–2021, where low (brown) means low soil moisture and therefore high drought severity. Yellow boxes bound the southwestern North America (SWNA) study region. Time series shows standardized anomalies (σ) of the SWNA regionally averaged soil moisture record relative to a 1950–1999 baseline. Black time series shows annual values and the red time series shows the 22-year running mean, with values displayed on the final year of each 22-year window. Geographic boundaries in maps were accessed through Matlab 2020a.

Fourteen droughts have devastated the livelihood of farmers, ranchers and tourism attractions over prolonged stretches. By contrast, the 11 major wildfires wreaked their misery over a few days or hours in the case of the Marshall fire on December 30. Fueled by winds topping 100 mph, the grass fire destroyed 1,084 homes worth more than $500 million to become the most damaging in state history in terms of structures destroyed.

September 2013 flooding via AWRA Colorado Section Symposium

Colorado suffered two floods severe enough to make the major category in 40 years, the most recent being the 2013 deluge along the Front Range that destroyed 1,852 homes.