Featured Image: Courtesy of Wolf Creek Ski Area
The 2026-27 ski season was off to a solid start for Wolf Creek. The ski area had already seen several feet of snow by late October, as generous, moisture-laden storms delivered a stable base to the San Juan Mountains. But the excitement was quickly cut short, as intense flooding permeated throughout Southern Colorado.
Wolf Creek had opened for the winter on October 31, and just one day later, it announced it would close due to a mandatory evacuation order for Archuleta County, which sits just south of Wolf Creek. The evacuation order is still in place, and though the flooding began 10 days ago, authorities are just starting to get a sense of the destruction.
Many are calling this a 100-year flood, even 1-in-a-1,000-year , harkening back to the 100-year floods that tore through Colorado's front range in 2013, killing over 140 people and causing over $130 million of damage.
Many townships have been affected in the last few days, with hundreds of people being displaced. Thankfully, no casualties have been reported as of 11/4/2026. Thanks to its proximity to the overflowing San Juan River, the 2,000-person town of Pagosa Springs has seen some of the area's worst damage.
The Colorado Sun reports that the San Juan River ballooned in the waning hours of October due to torrential rains and melting snow, with the water body initially rising 15 feet. U.S. Geological Survey data suggests the river was running at 11,200 cubic feet per second (CFS) at the flood's peak on the night of November 1. For context, it was sitting at a mild 800 CFS just two days earlier.
The disaster has impacted 12 counties in Southern Colorado, and many more across the great Four Corners area. Archuleta's neighboring La Plata County is also reporting heavy damage to hundreds of structures, with local officials already requesting millions in state funding, while the state has requested $27 million in federal aid.
Though flooding of this caliber is obviously uncommon in Southern Colorado, heavy precipitation in this area during an El Niño cycle is not. Experts even agree that the current Super El Niño is approaching unprecedented levels. As skiers, our minds tend to jump to powder-fueled fantasies, but the reality is much more sobering.
Extreme weather systems like these bring a bundle of ups and downs. They can bring blower high-alpine turns to the San Juan Mountains in early November, as we've seen. But they can also bring tragedy, and in a world haunted by a rapidly changing climate, you never know if you'll get one, the other, or both.
In the meantime, life for thousands of Southern Coloradans is going to look very different. If you're in need of food and shelter, or you want to help out however you can, visit the non-profit Colorado Responds , among other resources statewide.
