The National Hurricane Center's HURDAT2 file for the north-east and central Pacific begins in 1949 and holds 1,262 storms. Most of them never come near the United States. On this site, 21 of them came within 75 miles of a US city: 18 near Hawaii and 3 near California or Arizona. 6 of the 21 are central Pacific storms, which the file labels CP; the rest formed east of 140°W, the boundary the Hurricane Center gives for the eastern Pacific basin.
Every one of these storms is in the table below, with the strongest wind it had at its closest pass to a US city and the city where that happened. 8 were at hurricane strength at that point; the others reached US cities as tropical storms.
| Storm | Basin | States | Cities | Strongest at closest pass | City | Distance | Peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Della 1957 | Central Pacific | HI | 2 | Category 1 (86 mph) | Pearl Harbor, HI | 26 mi | Category 3 |
| Kanoa 1957 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 5 | Category 1 (86 mph) | Pahoa, HI | 62 mi | Category 1 |
| Dot 1959 | Central Pacific | HI | 21 | Category 1 (92 mph) | Waianae, HI | 61 mi | Category 4 |
| Katrina 1967 | Eastern Pacific | AZ, CA | 5 | Tropical storm (52 mph) | Wellton, AZ | 60 mi | Category 1 |
| Diana 1972 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 8 | Tropical storm (66 mph) | Pahoa, HI | 68 mi | Category 2 |
| Iwa 1982 | Central Pacific | HI | 11 | Category 1 (92 mph) | Princeville, HI | 24 mi | Category 1 |
| Gil 1983 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 36 | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Kilauea, HI | 19 mi | Category 1 |
| Nele 1985 | Central Pacific | HI | 2 | Category 1 (81 mph) | Pearl Harbor, HI | 36 mi | Category 1 |
| Dalilia 1989 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 3 | Tropical storm (63 mph) | Ocean View, HI | 63 mi | Category 1 |
| Iniki 1992 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 11 | Category 3 (129 mph) | Kekaha, HI | overhead | Category 4 |
| Lester 1992 | Eastern Pacific | AZ | 24 | Tropical storm (43 mph) | Nogales, AZ | 3 mi | Category 1 |
| Nora 1997 | Eastern Pacific | AZ, CA | 14 | Tropical storm (53 mph) | San Luis, AZ | 3 mi | Category 4 |
| Flossie 2013 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 1 | Tropical storm (39 mph) | Keaau, HI | 75 mi | Tropical storm |
| Ana 2014 | Central Pacific | HI | 2 | Tropical storm (43 mph) | Pearl Harbor, HI | 7 mi | Category 1 |
| Iselle 2014 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 16 | Tropical storm (61 mph) | Pahoa, HI | 27 mi | Category 4 |
| Celia 2016 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 2 | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Pearl Harbor, HI | 27 mi | Category 2 |
| Darby 2016 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 16 | Tropical storm (41 mph) | Pahoa, HI | 24 mi | Category 3 |
| Olivia 2018 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 31 | Tropical storm (46 mph) | Paia, HI | 11 mi | Category 4 |
| Douglas 2020 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 43 | Category 1 (92 mph) | Kilauea, HI | 28 mi | Category 4 |
| Linda 2021 | Eastern Pacific | HI | 14 | Tropical storm (40 mph) | Haiku, HI | 20 mi | Category 4 |
| Hone 2024 | Central Pacific | HI | 3 | Category 1 (83 mph) | Naalehu, HI | 61 mi | Category 1 |
Hawaii
The strongest Pacific storm at its closest pass to a US city is Iniki 1992, which was a Category 3 storm with 129 mph winds when its centre was less than a mile from Kekaha, HI. The storm that reached the most cities is Douglas 2020, with 43.
Hawaii sits far west of where eastern Pacific storms usually form: 18 storms in 77 years of the file came within 75 miles of a Hawaiian city, and 8 of them were hurricanes at that point. Because the islands are small and the radius is wide, a storm passing between islands can be within range of cities on several of them.
California and Arizona
3 Pacific storms came within 75 miles of a city in California or Arizona, none of them at hurricane strength by then. The strongest of them at its closest pass was Nora 1997, at 53 mph. Storms heading north along the Mexican coast run into cooler water off Baja California and most fade before the border; remnants below tropical-storm strength are not counted here.
HURDAT2 tracks end when a system stops being a tropical or subtropical cyclone, so the rain that a dying Pacific storm can bring to the desert Southwest after that point is outside this record.
When and how close
The 21 storms are spread across the record: the decade with the most is the 2010s, with 6, and 9 have come since 2000. 3 of them brought their centre within 5 miles of a US city: Iniki 1992, Lester 1992, Nora 1997. Most of the others passed the islands or the coast at a distance, close enough to count on this site but not a direct hit. 12 of the 21 had been hurricanes at their peak but were below hurricane strength by the time they came closest to a US city.
About the Pacific record
The Pacific file starts in 1949, a century after the Atlantic one, and its years before satellite coverage rest on far fewer observations. A storm on this list counts if its track centre passed within 75 miles of a city while it was at least a tropical storm, which for Hawaii includes storms that passed offshore without making landfall.
State pages for Hawaii, California and Arizona list every city and storm; the Hawaii page is the place to start.