NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Cottonwood, 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 Cottonwood, 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
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 6
- EF3 or stronger
- 0
within 75 mi, since 1851
below hurricane strength
within 25 mi, since 1950
no recorded deaths
What the records show for Cottonwood
The strongest of the 6 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F2 on May 9, 1980; its path came within 17 miles. Of the 6, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 3 have come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on January 3, 2025. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 75% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Cottonwood. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 6 times since 1986, with stones up to 1.5 inches (ping pong ball size). Cottonwood has more hail reports within 10 miles than 69% of the 705 California cities.
Compare Cottonwood's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Cottonwood
By decade
- 2020s1
- 2010s2
- 1980s1
- 1970s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 9, 1980 | F2 | 17 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 5, 1978 | F1 | 22 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 4, 2013 | EF0 | 16 mi | 0.82 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 19, 2013 | EF0 | 24 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 5, 1978 | F0 | 9 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 3, 2025 | Unrated | 13 mi | 0.8 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 6 of 6, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Cottonwood
The Storm Prediction Center has 6 hail reports within 10 miles of Cottonwood since 1986, made on 5 separate days. Of these, 3 were 1 inch across or larger, and none reached 2 inches. The largest, 1.5 inches (ping pong ball size), fell on July 4, 2000. The most recent report is from August 10, 2019.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Cottonwood
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Redding Municipal Airport, CA, 11 miles north of Cottonwood at 497 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 100°F and low of 67°F; December is the coolest, at 56°F and 37°F. December is the wettest at 6.3 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.1 inches; the year adds up to 33.5 inches over 54 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 106 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 27 nights a year. Snowfall averages 2.6 inches a year, most of it in January. That 33.5 inches is more than at 188 of the 226 California stations used on this site (83%). Red Bluff, 13 miles south, has its own station (Red Bluff Municipal Airport, CA): 23.2 inches a year, 10.3 less than here, and a July average high of 98°F against 100°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 57 | 38 | 6.0 | 9 | 1.1 |
| Feb | 61 | 40 | 5.5 | 8 | 0.8 |
| Mar | 66 | 43 | 4.6 | 8 | 0.0 |
| Apr | 72 | 47 | 2.4 | 5 | 0.0 |
| May | 82 | 54 | 1.8 | 4 | 0.0 |
| Jun | 92 | 62 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 100 | 67 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 98 | 64 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 92 | 58 | 0.5 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 79 | 50 | 1.9 | 3 | 0.0 |
| Nov | 64 | 42 | 3.5 | 6 | 0.0 |
| Dec | 56 | 37 | 6.3 | 9 | 0.7 |
| Year | 77 | 50 | 33.5 | 54 | 2.6 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Redding Municipal Airport, CA (497 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. Normals describe the station; the farther a place is from it, and the bigger the difference in height, the more its weather can differ.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Cottonwood
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 27 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Cottonwood: 20 floods, 4 heavy rain events, 1 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind report and 1 lightning strike. They killed 1 person and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $35,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 60 mph, on January 13, 2016.
February 17, 2017: flood 8 miles from the centre of Cottonwood — 1 killed.
NWS: “Two men and a woman were trying to get to their home in a flooded area via a canoe but it tipped in the process, deputies said. Tehama County Sheriff's Boating Safety crews responded and rescued one man and a woman, however, the other man drowned.”
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
Flood insurance policyholders in Cottonwood's ZIP code 96022 have filed 10 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1993, and were paid $213,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 60% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 415 California cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 0 have fewer than Cottonwood.
Tehama County, which includes Cottonwood, has been named in 25 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 17 of them major disasters (by incident: 9 floods, 5 fires, 5 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on January 14, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Tehama County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for inland flooding; Relatively Low for lightning and heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes, hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $69.0 million a year, the 41st highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $34.5 million (50%), 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 Cottonwood
- Anderson, CA7 mi
- Red Bluff, CA13 mi
- Palo Cedro, CA15 mi
- Redding, CA16 mi
- Gerber, CA24 mi
- Los Molinos, CA25 mi
- Shingletown, CA28 mi
- Corning, CA31 mi
- Orland, CA42 mi
- Forest Ranch, CA45 mi
- Hamilton City, CA46 mi
- Chico, CA49 mi
All California cities →All hurricanes since 1851 →Compare Cottonwood with another place →