BlockBefore

Kit Carson, Colorado

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Kit Carson census division. It lies in ZIP code area 80825. It stands on Wild Horse Creek. The Survey maps it on the Kit Carson quadrangle. 255 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,285 feet above sea level.

Kit Carson within Cheyenne County

Population over time

2 figures

Kit Carson grew from 233 to 255 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010233
2020255+22 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 13 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

62 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 62 fires within 5 miles of Kit Carson between 1995 and 2020, burning about 895 acres in total. 9 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined37
Equipment and vehicle use11
Natural9
Debris and open burning2
Smoking2
Other causes1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2014Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWest Cheyenne Fire Protection District (Kit Carson Volunteer Fire Department)UNKNOWN
6 September 2017Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWest Cheyenne Fire Protection District (Kit Carson Volunteer Fire Department)UNKNOWN
30 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
21 September 2010Naturalunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
20 September 2010Natural50 acresColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
9 August 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWest Cheyenne Fire Protection District (Kit Carson Volunteer Fire Department)UNKNOWN
5 August 2018Naturalunder an acreWest Cheyenne Fire Protection District (Kit Carson Volunteer Fire Department)UNKNOWN
25 August 2017Naturalunder an acreWest Cheyenne Fire Protection District (Kit Carson Volunteer Fire Department)UNKNOWN

Every fire recorded in Cheyenne County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Kit Carson: 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrenceSand
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cheyenne County

Storms near this place

60 of 192 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kit Carson in 192 storm reports between 1993 and 2026: 128 hail, 51 thunderstorm wind, 10 tornado, 2 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2016Thunderstorm WindKit Carson2 hurt, $30,000The intense thunderstorm winds blew the roof off the house. Two people in the house were directly injured from the thunderstorm winds.
April 2010HailKit Carson$100,000Observer reported ten windows were broken in his house, two vehicles completely damaged beyond repair, and hail damage to all buildings.
May 2016Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$80,000Two to possibly three roofs have collapsed in town and numerous trees have been blown down. Several semis have also been blown over Highway 287 and there are power lines across the highway due to power poles being blown down.
May 2007FloodKit Carson$75,000Eureka Creek railroad bridge, just north of Hwy 40 about 6 miles ENE of Kit Carson, washed out. Water was also reported flowing over Highway 40. Law enforcement also reported flooding of county road 27 (south of U.S. highway 40) in this same area. Road 43 north of Cheyenne Wells was also reported to be covered with water from this same heavy rain event.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$25,000Roof blown off of a house in town. Time estimated by radar.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$3,000A possible heat burst from high altitude blew a roof from a shed.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$1,000A tree in Kit Carson was uprooted by thunderstorm wind gusts. The rain soaked soil may have helped the tree be blown over.
July 2018HailKit Carson$1,000At least one vehicle window was broken by the hail.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$1,000A power pole was snapped off at the base.
May 2013HailKit Carson$500no account filed
June 2013Thunderstorm WindKit Carson$200Three inch diameter green tree limb blown down due to severe winds. Visibility also dropped to near zero at times due to blowing dust. Estimated wind gust based on radar.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Measured by a storm chaser using a handheld anemometer. The strong winds produced 2 miles visibility in blowing dust.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Measured by a Union Pacific Railroad mesonet.
April 2025HailKit Carson-Report sent in via mPING.
April 2025HailKit Carson-Report of golf ball size hail. Windows were knocked out of buildings as well at location.
June 2025HailKit Carson-Picture from social media of estimated 1 inch hail.
May 2025HailKit Carson-Public picture of estimated tennis ball sized hail stone.
May 2025HailKit Carson-MPing report of Baseball sized hail.
May 2025HailKit Carson-MPing report of 2.25 inch hail.
May 2025Tornado (EFU)Kit Carson-Off duty NWS employee and other storm chaser live stream shows tornado ongoing. EM called and confirmed tornado just south of town.
May 2025HailKit Carson-COOP observer reports 1.75 inch hail.
May 2025HailKit Carson-Public report of 1 inch hail.
May 2025HailKit Carson-MPing report of 1.75 inch hail.
May 2025HailKit Carson-Estimated 1.5 to 2 inch hail.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Mesonet station UP729 0.5 W Kit Carson reported the wind gust.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Site UP729 reported wind gust of 62 mph.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-The mesonet site UPR KTCRSN in Kit Carson reported the wind gust.
May 2024HailKit Carson-Copious amounts of hail fell ranging from pea to quarter size.
May 2024HailKit Carson-Largest hail was the size of a quarter.
July 2024HailKit Carson-MPING report of penny size hail.
June 2024HailKit Carson-Hail up to 1.5 inch from spotter's live feed.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Spotter network report of one power pole snapped on east side of the highway.
June 2024HailKit Carson-Public report of estimated 2 inch diameter hail.
June 2024HailKit Carson-Spotter provided pictures showing several large hail stones approximately two inches in diameter.
June 2024HailKit Carson-Public report of estimated 2 inch diameter hail.
June 2023HailKit Carson-The hail may have been larger in size. The heavy rainfall made size estimation difficult while driving.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Trained spotter reported weather station measured 65 mph thunderstorm wind gust.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Outflow winds associated with a cluster of thunderstorms moving over Cheyenne County were estimated to produce up to 60 mph wind gusts north of Kit Carson, Colorado.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-A band of storms moving across Cheyenne County produced wind gusts up to 60 mph east of Kit Carson, Colorado.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Report received of a estimated 65 mph thunderstorm wind gust at location.
June 2022HailKit Carson-Dispatch relayed a report of heavy rain with hail up to a quarter in size around mile marker 129 on Highway 287.
June 2022HailKit Carson-Law enforcement reported heavy rainfall and hail up to a penny in size in the town of Kit Carson.
April 2021Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-An embedded supercell at the southern edge of a line of storms produced estimated 60 mph wind gusts for a duration of two minutes along County Road 22.
June 2021HailKit Carson-Report received of golf ball sized hail at location.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Trained spotter reported estimated 55-60 mph winds along with pea sized hail at location for a brief period.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Cheyenne County Dispatch reported blowing dust associated with outflow from a thunderstorm moving over the town of Kit Carson. Visibility was reported down to near-zero. A mesonet station 1 mile west of town recorded a 51 mph wind gust as the outflow moved over the site.
May 2021Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Deputy reported estimated 60-70 mph wind gusts with dime sized hail at location.
May 2021HailKit Carson-Dime size hail was reported with wind gusts of 60-70 MPH.
May 2021HailKit Carson-Trained spotter reported via the spotter network of ongoing hail at the start time. Hail ranged from pea to quarter sized with most of the hail being nickel sized. Time duration is radar estimated.
May 2021HailKit Carson-Report of hail up to penny size at location received via mPing.
June 2020HailKit Carson-Trained spotter reported dime size hail at location.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Mesonet station UP729 reported a 62 mph thunderstorm wind gust at location.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Trained spotter reported estimated 60 mph wind gusts with sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph. Pea size hail was also reported at the location.
June 2019Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Estimated gust.
August 2019HailKit Carson-A trained spotter confirmed a few hailstones were as big as a quarter in a field after the storm had passed.
August 2019Tornado (EFU)Kit Carson-A storm chaser reported a brief landspout tornado on the ground for approximately 2 minutes about 5 miles south-southwest of Kit Carson.
July 2018HailKit Carson-Three pigs, an unknown number of cattle and antelope were killed as the storm moved through.
May 2016Thunderstorm WindKit Carson-Trained spotter estimated 90 MPH wind gusts as the storms moved through.
May 2016HailKit Carson-The hail came down sideways due to the strong wind.
May 2016Tornado (EF0)Kit Carson-Touched down roughly two miles east of Highway 287 just south of CR C. The landspout moved little if any during its lifetime. No damage was reported as it remained in unpopulated areas of the county.

Every storm recorded in Cheyenne County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Fort Big Spring12.1 miles13
Wild Horse12.6 miles12
Firstview13.8 miles13
Mount Pearl13.9 miles13
Aroya18.9 miles12
Cheyenne Wells23.5 miles14
Old Wells26.3 miles14
Arapahoe32.8 miles14

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Kit CarsonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1872356The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 195254. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.