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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Brisbane, CA

Every tropical system within 75 miles since 1851 and every tornado within 25 miles since 1950.

Data: NOAA NHC HURDAT2 and NOAA SPC tornado and hail reports, through 2025 · Updated

No tropical storm or hurricane has passed within 75 miles of Brisbane, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 6 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
0

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
0

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
6

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
0

no recorded deaths

What the records show for Brisbane

The highest rating among the 6 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1, reached 2 times; the most recent, on March 20, 2005, came within 2 miles. Of the 6, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 75% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Brisbane. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 12 times since 2017, with stones up to 0.5 inches (marble size). Brisbane has more hail reports within 10 miles than 91% of the 705 California cities.

Compare Brisbane's storm record with another city →

Tornadoes within 25 miles of Brisbane

By decade

  • 2000s1
  • 1990s3
  • 1980s1
  • 1950s1
Strongest tornadoes near Brisbane, California
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Mar 20, 2005F12 mi3 mi0 / 0
Apr 1, 1958F15 mi0.2 mi0 / 0
Dec 5, 1998F017 mi1.5 mi0 / 0
Feb 7, 1998F015 mi0.2 mi0 / 0
Dec 17, 1992F014 mi0.2 mi0 / 0
Mar 10, 1986F013 mi0.2 mi0 / 0

The strongest 6 of 6, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Brisbane

The Storm Prediction Center has 12 hail reports within 10 miles of Brisbane since 2017. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.5 inches (marble size), fell on November 29, 2018. The most recent report is from March 28, 2023. January has the most reports, 4.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.

Weather by month in Brisbane

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is San Francisco International Airport, CA, 5 miles southeast of Brisbane at 8 feet. September is the warmest, with an average high of 75°F and low of 56°F; January is the coolest, at 58°F and 45°F. December is the wettest at 4.1 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 19.6 inches over 39 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 4 days a year, almost all from September. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 19.6 inches is more than at 138 of the 226 California stations used on this site (61%). Daly City, 4 miles west, has its own station (San Francisco Oceanside, CA): 20.6 inches a year, 1.0 more than here, and a September average high of 65°F against 75°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, 8 miles northeast, averaged 69°F in August and 53°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Alameda tide gauge, 8 miles from Brisbane, has risen 0.37 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1939 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 3.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 21 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at San Francisco International Airport, CA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"Water °F
Jan58453.9753
Feb61464.0854
Mar63482.7657
Apr66491.4361
May68520.5264
Jun72540.1167
Jul73550.0068
Aug73560.0069
Sep75560.1069
Oct72530.8265
Nov64492.0459
Dec58454.1754
Year675119.63962

Averages for 1991–2020 at San Francisco International Airport, CA (8 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, from NOAA Tides & Currents. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.

California weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Brisbane

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 163 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Brisbane: 122 floods, 15 heavy rain events, 14 thunderstorm wind reports, 9 lightning strikes and 3 flash floods. They killed 1 person and injured 9, and the NWS estimated $301,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 97 mph, on December 14, 2024.

  • January 14, 2023: thunderstorm wind 8 miles from the centre of Brisbane — 1 killed.

  • March 14, 2012: heavy rain event 4 miles from the centre of Brisbane — 5 injured, $50,000 damage.

  • March 1, 2024: thunderstorm wind 7 miles from the centre of Brisbane — 4 injured.

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, events whose starting point is on record, 1996 to June 30, 2026. Damage is the NWS estimate in the dollars of the year, not insured losses, and NWS notes that some reports are unverified.

Flood insurance claims, disaster declarations and FEMA risk ratings

San Mateo County, which includes Brisbane, has been named in 24 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1977, 17 of them major disasters (by incident: 7 floods, 7 severe storms, 3 fires, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on April 3, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives San Mateo County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding and coastal flooding; Relatively Moderate for lightning and heat waves; Relatively Low for tornadoes and strong wind; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $740.0 million a year, the 11th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $212.3 million (29%), is from inland flooding.

Claims: FEMA, OpenFEMA Dataset FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims – v3, summed over ZIP codes; payments in the dollars of each year, not adjusted for inflation. Declarations: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2, by county. Retrieved October 25, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

Risk ratings: FEMA, National Risk Index county table, December 2025 (v1.20), retrieved October 26, 2026; ratings compare counties nationwide, are meant for planning and are no substitute for a local risk assessment. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

What counts as a pass, the distances and the sources: how this storm history is built.

Cities near Brisbane