NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Los Gatos, 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 Los Gatos, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 14 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 14
- 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 Los Gatos
The highest rating among the 14 tornadoes within 25 miles is F2, reached 2 times; the most recent, on May 5, 1998, came within 11 miles. Of the 14, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 5 have come since 2000. December has had the most tornadoes, 5. The most recent tornado was on December 14, 2024. Los Gatos has more tornadoes within 25 miles than 50% of the 705 California cities on this site. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 19 times since 2017, with stones up to 0.38 inches. Los Gatos has more hail reports within 10 miles than 97% of the 705 California cities.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Los Gatos
By decade
- 2020s1
- 2010s3
- 2000s1
- 1990s5
- 1980s2
- 1960s1
- 1950s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 1998 | F2 | 11 mi | 0.6 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 11, 1951 | F2 | 13 mi | 5.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 14, 2024 | EF1 | 13 mi | 0.31 mi | 0 / 5 |
| Dec 20, 2001 | F1 | 20 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 5, 1998 | F1 | 14 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 14, 1980 | F1 | 18 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Apr 1, 1965 | F1 | 19 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 6, 2019 | EF0 | 19 mi | 0.54 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 6, 2019 | EF0 | 19 mi | 0.07 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 22, 2012 | EF0 | 24 mi | 1.07 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 17 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 6, 1998 | F0 | 11 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 14, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Los Gatos
The Storm Prediction Center has 19 hail reports within 10 miles of Los Gatos since 2017, made on 11 separate days. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.38 inches, fell on March 25, 2020. The most recent report is from March 30, 2024. March has the most reports, 9.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Los Gatos
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Los Gatos, CA, in Los Gatos at 365 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 85°F and low of 56°F; December is the coolest, at 58°F and 40°F. January is the wettest at 5.0 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 22.3 inches over 37 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 27 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 13 nights a year. That 22.3 inches is more than at 153 of the 226 California stations used on this site (68%). Cupertino, 8 miles northwest, has its own station (Moffett Federal Airfield, CA): 13.5 inches a year, 8.8 less than here, and a July average high of 77°F against 85°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Redwood City, CA, 24 miles northwest, averaged 74°F in August and 54°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Redwood City tide gauge, 24 miles from Los Gatos, has risen 1.08 ± 0.25 inches per decade from 1974 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 62 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 59 | 40 | 5.0 | 7 | 54 |
| Feb | 62 | 41 | 4.9 | 7 | 55 |
| Mar | 66 | 43 | 3.4 | 6 | 58 |
| Apr | 70 | 45 | 1.4 | 3 | 62 |
| May | 76 | 49 | 0.5 | 1 | 67 |
| Jun | 82 | 53 | 0.2 | 0 | 70 |
| Jul | 85 | 56 | 0.0 | 0 | 73 |
| Aug | 85 | 56 | 0.0 | 0 | 74 |
| Sep | 83 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 | 73 |
| Oct | 76 | 49 | 0.8 | 2 | 69 |
| Nov | 65 | 43 | 2.0 | 3 | 60 |
| Dec | 58 | 40 | 4.0 | 7 | 55 |
| Year | 72 | 47 | 22.3 | 37 | 64 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Los Gatos, CA (365 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Redwood City, 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.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Los Gatos
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 103 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Los Gatos: 83 floods, 10 heavy rain events, 4 thunderstorm wind reports, 4 lightning strikes and 2 flash floods. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $16,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on December 25, 2025.
January 20, 2010: flood 6 miles from the centre of Los Gatos — 1 killed.
October 28, 2016: flood 8 miles from the centre of Los Gatos — 1 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
Flood insurance policyholders in Los Gatos's 3 ZIP codes have filed 52 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $552,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1986: 19 claims (37% of all) and $55,000. 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, 239 have fewer than Los Gatos.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1986 | 19 | $55,000 |
Santa Clara County, which includes Los Gatos, has been named in 25 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1977, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 6 fires, 6 floods, 6 severe storms, 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 Santa Clara County a Very High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for inland flooding; Relatively High for coastal flooding and heat waves; Relatively Low for tornadoes, hail and lightning; Very Low for strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $1.97 billion a year, the 4th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $720.2 million (37%), 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 Los Gatos
- Campbell, CA4 mi
- Saratoga, CA5 mi
- Cupertino, CA8 mi
- San Jose, CA8 mi
- Santa Clara, CA9 mi
- Boulder Creek, CA10 mi
- Sunnyvale, CA11 mi
- Ben Lomond, CA11 mi
- Scotts Valley, CA12 mi
- Los Altos, CA12 mi
- Felton, CA12 mi
- Mountain View, CA13 mi
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