Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Long Beach, CA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Long Beach Daugherty Field, CA, 1 mile east of Long Beach at 31 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 83°F and low of 66°F; December is the coolest, at 67°F and 47°F. February is the wettest at 3.0 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 12.3 inches over 20 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 23 days a year, almost all from May to November. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 12.3 inches is more than at 69 of the 226 California stations used on this site (31%). Wilmington, 5 miles west, has its own station (Torrance Airport, CA): 13.8 inches a year, 1.5 more than here, and an August average high of 78°F against 83°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Santa Monica, CA, 24 miles northwest, averaged 69°F in August and 58°F in January and March over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Los Angeles tide gauge, 9 miles from Long Beach, has risen 0.42 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1923 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 4.2 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 24 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 38 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Long Beach: 14 flash floods, 12 thunderstorm wind reports, 9 floods and 3 heavy rain events. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $3.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 100 mph, on April 18, 2000. January has had the most flash floods, 6 of 14. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 363 have had fewer than Long Beach.

Flood insurance policyholders in Long Beach's 11 ZIP codes have filed 368 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.6 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1995: 77 claims (21% of all) and $956,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 39 and Winter storm in 2010 with 29. 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, 390 have fewer than Long Beach.