DENVER (KDVR) — Flash flooding hit Texas on Friday, ultimately killing over 100 people and leaving behind catastrophic damage. While these rare floods are considered some of the nation's worst floods in decades, flash flooding can happen anywhere, including in Colorado.

The National Weather Service said flash flooding occurs when heavy rainfall comes in a short time, within minutes or hours, and overflows dry land.

Most recently in Texas, heavy rain caused a wall of water to slam into homes on the edge of the Guadalupe River, leaving over 100 dead and many missing, days later. While FOX31 Meteorologist Travis Michels said this event was extremely rare due to the large amount of water, flash flooding can occur anywhere, and in Colorado, flash flooding isn't all that uncommon.

According to Iowa State University data from 2015 to 2025, flash flood warnings, usually indicating that a flash flood is in progress or is about to happen, were issued several times in northern Colorado each year, with some years seeing nearly 100 flash flood warnings.

These flash floods were usually caused by heavy downpours and thunderstorms, resulting in overflowing small creeks and streams, gulches, roads and poor drainage.

While flash flood warnings occur many times a year, flash flooding occurs in some areas more than others. Over the past 10 years, the data shows that most of the flash flooding in northern Colorado occurred in Larimer, with the county seeing over 100 flash flood warnings in the past 10 years.

Meanwhile, in Denver, flash flooding isn't as common. Over the past 10 years, Denver has only recieved five flash flood warnings, with the most recent warning in 2022 for heavy rain, with over 2 inches of rain that fell in two hours.

While most of the flash floods in Colorado have caused drainage issues and overflowing creeks, some have caused serious damage, with one of the worst floods in Colorado history occurring in the Front Range in 2013 and destroying over a thousand homes and killing eight people.