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NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database

Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Lucerne, 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 Lucerne, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 1 tornado has touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.

Hurricanes
0

within 75 mi, since 1851

Tropical storms
0

below hurricane strength

Tornadoes
1

within 25 mi, since 1950

EF3 or stronger
0

no recorded deaths

What the records show for Lucerne

The only tornado within 25 miles was an F0 on December 11, 1983; its path came within 23 miles. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 96% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Lucerne.

Compare Lucerne's storm record with another city →

Tornadoes within 25 miles of Lucerne

By decade

  • 1980s1
Strongest tornadoes near Lucerne, California
DateRatingDistancePathKilled / injured
Dec 11, 1983F023 mi2 mi0 / 0

The strongest 1 of 1, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.

Hail in Lucerne

The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Lucerne since 1955.

Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.

Weather by month in Lucerne

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Clearlake 4 SE, CA, 17 miles southeast of Lucerne at 1,349 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 91°F and low of 56°F; January and December are the coolest, at 55°F and 33°F. January and February are the wettest at 6.2 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 30.0 inches over 49 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 66 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 72 nights a year. That 30.0 inches is more than at 178 of the 226 California stations used on this site (79%). Nice, 4 miles northwest, has its own station (Ukiah Municipal Airport, CA): 34.9 inches a year, 4.9 more than here, and a July average high of 94°F against 91°F.

Monthly climate normals 1991–2020 at Clearlake 4 SE, CA
MonthHigh °FLow °FPrecip. inDays ≥ 0.1"
Jan55336.29
Feb58346.29
Mar62354.06
Apr66392.04
May73451.23
Jun83520.21
Jul91560.00
Aug91540.10
Sep85500.20
Oct75430.92
Nov63362.95
Dec55336.19
Year714230.049

Averages for 1991–2020 at Clearlake 4 SE, CA (1,349 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.

California weather by month, station by station →

Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Lucerne

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 18 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Lucerne: 11 floods, 6 heavy rain events and 1 lightning strike. They killed 1 person and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $8.0 million in property and crop damage.

  • January 1, 2006: flood in Lucerne — 1 killed, 1 injured, $1.0 million damage.

  • February 9, 2017: flood 8 miles from the centre of Lucerne — $7.0 million damage.

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 Lucerne's ZIP code 95458 have filed 63 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $340,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1995: 22 claims (35% of all) and $60,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 18. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 19. 65% 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, 267 have fewer than Lucerne.

Flood insurance claims in Lucerne by named event
EventClaimsPaid
Flooding199522$60,000
Pineapple Express - Southern199818$184,000

Lake County, which includes Lucerne, has been named in 35 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 20 of them major disasters (by incident: 15 fires, 9 severe storms, 6 floods, 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 Lake County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding; Relatively Low for heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes, hail, strong wind and lightning. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $101.0 million a year, the 37th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $51.5 million (51%), 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 Lucerne