What natural disasters occur in Denver? (Colorado Springs, Littleton: car insurance, house, earthquakes)

[Neditate]

I didn't say that earthquakes didn't happen here, I said they aren't an issue and are rarely even felt. Although I worked in a high-rise in downtown Denver in '82 and felt a 2.8 quake. Colorado

Just remember that Yellowstone is experiencing a very high volume of quakes. When that blows well...

"In one two day period in January 2010 there were more than 250 earthquakes in the park and the quakes have been gaining strength. Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a "notable swarm." In late December 2008 and early January 2009, Yellowstone National park experienced the second largest earthquake swarm in Yellowstone's recorded seismic history. The swarm under the north end of Yellowstone Lake consisted of 813 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging up to 3.9."
"Mike Stickney, director of earthquake studies at the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, said there is no way to predict when the next big one will hit. The Yellowstone Plateau is one of the largest super-volcanoes in the world and has gone through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years, which included some of the world's largest known eruptions."

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by billybobwv

Never heard of Denver earthquakes but when I was a student at DU back in the late 80's I do remember when a tornado touched down on the corner of Broadway & Evans destroying a Jack-In-The-Box restaurant plus doing some serious damage to the EMW Furniture store right next door.

I also remember that huge hail storm that slammed Denver in the spring of 1990 that caught people at Elitch Gardens by surprise. I also remember that strange lawsuit that followed. I say strange because some woman had told the National Enquier about how she had seen "dead bodies" at Elitch Gardens on the Mr. Twister roller coaster, people who the woman "claimed" were killed by falling hail. Problem? Nobody was killed as a result of that hail storm, the city of Denver at the time confirmed that. Hurt yes but not killed. Anyway Elitch Gardens was NOT happy as I believe the amusement park sued both the National Enquier and that woman. Don't remember the settlement though if there was one in the first place other than an apology from one or both parties to Elitches.

Billybobwv is right on the tornado, it happened in June of 1989. Funny he should mention that part of town, coincidentally my older brother was having coffee with friends at Jim Bundy's restaurant right across the street from the Jack-In-The Box. He could see the winds coming up and in a matter of seconds half the roof blew away. Freaked out the help and the customers, for sure. A friend of mine who owned Record Revival, one of Denvers oldest used music stores, which was halfway down the block, remarked to me when I saw him a few days afterward "I thought my inventory would be frisbee-ing across the sky from here all the way to Des Moines!"

I was working at the Fort St. Vrain Plant during that time, that morning I went to work three huge funnel clouds hung in the skyline north of the metro area for the entire afternoon. Pretty wicked looking, too!

There was a couple small ones that touched down in the south Denver area, didn't do a lot of damage. The one that was on the ground for a while was the one that touched down east of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. I saw that one close up as the contractor I worked for wanted me to drop off paychecks and safety related equipment to the guys working on the "Basin F" enviro-cleanup project there. The tornado was on the ground for maybe 10 minutes, could see it pretty clearly. It was a freak event but an event that can, and does happen.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Neditate

I didn't say that earthquakes didn't happen here, I said they aren't an issue and are rarely even felt. Although I worked in a high-rise in downtown Denver in '82 and felt a 2.8 quake. Colorado

Just remember that Yellowstone is experiencing a very high volume of quakes. When that blows well...

"In one two day period in January 2010 there were more than 250 earthquakes in the park and the quakes have been gaining strength. Prof. Robert B. Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah and one of the leading experts on earthquake and volcanic activity at Yellowstone, said that the activity is a "notable swarm." In late December 2008 and early January 2009, Yellowstone National park experienced the second largest earthquake swarm in Yellowstone's recorded seismic history. The swarm under the north end of Yellowstone Lake consisted of 813 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging up to 3.9."
"Mike Stickney, director of earthquake studies at the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, said there is no way to predict when the next big one will hit. The Yellowstone Plateau is one of the largest super-volcanoes in the world and has gone through three volcanic cycles spanning two million years, which included some of the world's largest known eruptions."

I think Yellowstone is the big "end of the world" button Maybe it's better to be closer to it so as to not prolong the suffering!

[zenkonami]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Colorado Earthquake Information

Earthquakes at Rangely, Colorado (http://www.emporia.edu/earthsci/student/moran4/index.htm - broken link)

I'll add to that:

USGS

Quite interesting, though not particularly worrisome stuff.

[jettsettr]

The front range falls victim to hail quite often. Just recently Northern Colorado was hit with a tornado that caused quite a bit of damage to towns like Windsor and Gilcrest. Tornadoes are common for us but usually they do not cause much damage or claim many lives. Wildfires may be a problem for those who live in towns edging the tree line but nothing like California. Overall, city life (whether Denver or in a surrounding suburb) is pretty free of natural disasters.

[mejiseike]

ummmm earthquakes?? haha go smack the person who told you that lol

but pretty much blizzards, some hail and some flooding

but nothing serious! and wow!! one person said anything about snow lol

[denverian]

Originally Posted by mejiseike

ummmm earthquakes?? haha go smack the person who told you that lol

but pretty much blizzards, some hail and some flooding

but nothing serious! and wow!! one person said anything about snow lol

Probably because snow doesn't tend to kill tens of thousands of people!

[Mike from back east]

Among the disasters to occur here with some regularity is the loud choking sound coming from Invesco Field....

[80skeys]

There are some small tornadoes every once in a while during the summer, but they don't do any real damage.
I don't think there's any issues with earthquakes. Different places in the southwest desert experience very mild earthquakes rarely, but not enough to notice or affect anything. The reason for the occurrence of these small earthquakes is the location of the Continental Divide and various faults that come off it.

Thunderstorms and occasional hail storms.

[treedonkey]

Earthquakes: yes (see links above)
Wildfires (Prairie and Forest): yes
Tornadoes: yes
Floods: Yes, if you're near a creek or river
Blizzard: yes
Lighting Strikes: Yes

IMO, the ones in bold are the most likely and regular, unless you're way out on the eastern plains, then un-bold wildfires and bold-out tornadoes.