Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit La Jolla, CA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is San Diego Miramar NAS, CA, 5 miles east of La Jolla at 477 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 82°F and low of 65°F; December is the coolest, at 67°F and 46°F. February is the wettest at 2.7 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 11.5 inches over 22 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 20 days a year, almost all from April to November. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 11.5 inches is more than at 54 of the 226 California stations used on this site (24%). San Diego, 7 miles southeast, has its own station (San Diego Montgomery Field, CA): 11.1 inches a year, 0.4 less than here, and the same August average high, 82°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station La Jolla, CA, 2 miles west, averaged 68°F in August and 58°F in January and February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the La Jolla tide gauge, 2 miles from La Jolla, has risen 0.80 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 39 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 105 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of La Jolla: 49 floods, 26 flash floods, 13 thunderstorm wind reports, 11 heavy rain events and 6 lightning strikes. They killed 1 person and injured 4, and the NWS estimated $9.2 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 68 mph, on January 31, 2016. January has had the most flash floods, 9 of 26. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 490 have had fewer than La Jolla.

Flood insurance policyholders in La Jolla's ZIP code 92037 have filed 109 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1988: 26 claims (24% of all) and $57,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 14. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 14. 42% 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, 326 have fewer than La Jolla.