1 federal flood & hurricane disasters
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 De Baca 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 convective storms dominates the flood risk profile, accounting for 20 of the 22 recorded flood events over the last 30 years alongside 2 standard flood events.
Recent events illustrate this pattern. In May 2023, training supercells grew into a convective complex that produced flash flooding across east-central New Mexico due to sufficient lift and Gulf moisture. Previously, in June 2021, moisture streaming northward from Tropical Storm Enrique combined with slow storm motions to produce heavy rainfall and flash flooding across northern and central New Mexico.
Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties located in low-lying areas or near natural drainage pathways where intense summer thunderstorms can rapidly produce localized flash flooding.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
18 NOAA storm reports from De Baca County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the New Mexico flood stories →
7 federal disaster declarations since 1997, 1 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Sep 9, 2013 |
| Hurricane Katrina Evacuation | Aug 29, 2005 |
| Severe Fire Threats | May 5, 2000 |
| Severe Forest Fire | May 5, 2000 |
| Severe Winter Storm | Dec 22, 1997 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
22 since 1996: 20 flash floods and 2 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flash Flood | Apr 26, 2025 | — |
| Flash Flood | May 31, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jun 30, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Aug 12, 2021 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jul 6, 2021 | — |
| Flash Flood | Sep 6, 2018 | $10,000 |
| Flash Flood | Sep 25, 2017 | — |
| Flash Flood | Oct 5, 2017 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flash Flood · Apr 26, 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 · May 31, 2023. Sufficient lift ahead of an upper low over California and Arizona and Gulf moisture ahead of the dryline across eastern New Mexico allowed widespread showers and storms to initiate around midday. Several supercells produced large and severe hail along with two tornadoes in the central and south-central highlands of Guadalupe and Lincoln County. Later that evening, training supercells grew upscale into a convective…
Flood · Jun 30, 2021. A saturated and unstable atmosphere over New Mexico on June 30, 2021, led to several reports of flooding and flash flooding. Moisture from Tropical Storm Enrique in the eastern Pacific streamed northward into New Mexico and warmer daytime temperatures allowed for more instability. The result was a round of widespread showers and thunderstorms across northern and central New Mexico. Storm motions were relatively sl…
Flash Flood · Aug 12, 2021. A storm system over southeast New Mexico combined with an abundant amount of atmospheric moisture resulted in numerous thunderstorms across eastern New Mexico on August 12, 2021. Thunderstorms formed early in the afternoon across the high terrain, and steering flow tracked thunderstorms in a southerly to southwesterly direction. Steering flow was fast enough to limit a widespread flooding threat, but one particula…
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 De Baca 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.