From September 9-16, 2013, the Colorado Front Range experienced uncharacteristically heavy rainfall that led to catastrophic flooding and landslides. The floods resulted in 8 deaths, forced 11,000 people to evacuate, destroyed 1,850 homes, and caused over $2 billion in damages.
In the aftermath of the events, 18 Colorado counties were declared federal disaster areas. Even so, decades of planning and floodplain management efforts helped to successfully mitigate the negative impacts of the flooding. The events also sparked important discussions about how to improve community flood preparation and response measures for the future.
On this page, find information about archival collections and other sources documenting the 2013 floods.
Photo: Flood damage to Highway 34, 2013. From the Northern Colorado Flood Oral History Collection.
Northern Colorado Flood Oral History Collection
The collection includes over 30 oral history interviews with professionals representing Boulder, Larimer, Morgan, and Weld counties who managed the response to the flood events. In addition, the collection contains a series of project files and a bibliography compiled in support of the oral history project as well as a collection of media coverage on the 2013 flood events.
City of Boulder, Colorado: videos
City of Fort Collins, Colorado: video
"Colorado Flood 2013." Colorado Climate Center.
Colorado Water. March/April 2014: Volume 31, Issue 2.
Gerakios Mucci, Naomi. "2013 Northern Colorado Flood Oral History Project Bibliography." Northern Colorado Flood Oral History Collection, 2015.
"The Great Colorado Flood of September 2013." Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (2015) 96 (9): 1461–1487.
Heindel, Jennifer. "Front Range Floods Teacher Guide." June 2014: National Park Service, Rocky Mountain National Park Environmental Education Staff.
A September to Remember: The 2013 Colorado Flood Within the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District. Denver, Colo: Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, 2014.
"Severe Flooding on the Colorado Front Range." September 2013: Western Water Assessment.
A Thousand-Year Rain: The Historic Flood of 2013 in Boulder and Larimer Counties. Boulder, Colo: Prairie Mountain Publishing, 2013.
University of Colorado: Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory
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