56 flood insurance claims·$562,922 paid
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Curry County, New Mexico. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
Flash flooding from severe summer thunderstorms dominates the flood risk in Curry County, driven by 30 recorded flash flood events compared to just 3 general flood events over the last 30 years. This severe weather is frequently triggered by a combination of backdoor fronts, dryline boundaries, and monsoon moisture inflows. Recent events include a flash flood driven by Gulf moisture and surface boundaries on April 25, 2025, and another resulting from an early-season monsoon moisture plume on June 24, 2025.
National Flood Insurance Program records indicate that historical claims are heavily concentrated in high-risk areas. Properties in Zone A account for the vast majority of claims with 54 filings, averaging $23,389 per payout and an average recorded water depth of 2 inches. By comparison, Zone X and shaded Zone X records show only one claim each, with average payouts of $1,267 (averaging 0 inches of recorded water depth) and $329 (averaging 6 inches of recorded water depth), respectively.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the most attention to properties located within Zone A, as these areas experience the vast majority of historical insurance claims and flood impacts in the county.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
2% of Curry County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
55 NFIP claims with a recorded rated flood zone, 1978 to date. The zone is the one FEMA used to rate that policy, which may not match today’s map. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 2 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 1988, with 15 claims and $6,991 paid.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
25 NOAA storm reports from Curry County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the New Mexico flood stories →
6 federal disaster declarations since 2000.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Tire Fire | Apr 17, 2011 |
| Severe Storms And Tornadoes | Mar 23, 2007 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Fire Threats | May 5, 2000 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
33 since 1996: 30 flash floods and 3 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 25, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 24, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 29, 2024 | $1,000 |
| Flash Flood | May 28, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jun 14, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | Jul 8, 2024 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 31, 2023 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 27, 2023 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 25, 2025. A backdoor front pushed through northeast NM during the morning hours of April 25th stalling across east central NM midday. Additionally, a dryline backed west into the southeast plains of New Mexico. These surface boundaries allowed higher low level Gulf moisture. Daytime heating, combined with the higher moisture, lift from the aforementioned boundaries and an upper level shortwave overhead and stronger vertical…
Flash Flood · Jun 24, 2025. An early season plume of monsoon moisture advected northward into New Mexico from June 22nd through the 24th bringing several days of flash flooding and severe weather across portions of northern and central NM. June 22nd in particular saw severe thunderstorms produce numerous severe wind gusts of 60 mph or stronger across eastern NM from Roswell to Nara Visa with reports of downed utility poles and arcing powerli…
Flash Flood · May 29, 2024. A surface convergence boundary was draped across east central NM during the evening hours of May 29th. High moisture was in place east of the boundary. These two features resulted in the development and strengthening of a strong supercell that drifted south and southeast through Curry County. The supercell produced two brief tornadoes along with golf ball to baseball size hail in central and southeast Curry County…
Flash Flood · May 28, 2024. A disturbance embedded within upper level ridging along with higher surface moisture moving westward from Texas resulted in the development of thunderstorms in far northeast NM during the early afternoon hours. These storms became severe in northern Union County during the mid afternoon hours drifting southeast over east central Union County into the Texas Panhandle. One of these storms produced a brief tornado ju…
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Curry County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.