NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Martinez, 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 Martinez, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 9 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 9
- 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 Martinez
The strongest of the 9 tornadoes within 25 miles was an EF1 on January 23, 2010; its path came within 20 miles. Of the 9, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and 2 have come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on April 7, 2011. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 63% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Martinez. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 10 times since 2018, with stones up to 0.5 inches (marble size). Martinez has more hail reports within 10 miles than 88% of the 705 California cities.
Compare Martinez's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Martinez
By decade
- 2010s2
- 1990s5
- 1980s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 23, 2010 | EF1 | 20 mi | 1.64 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 7, 2011 | EF0 | 17 mi | 0.11 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 14 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 12, 1998 | F0 | 15 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 19, 1998 | F0 | 23 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 23, 1996 | F0 | 20 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 19 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 5 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 5 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 9 of 9, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Martinez
The Storm Prediction Center has 10 hail reports within 10 miles of Martinez since 2018, made on 6 separate days. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.5 inches (marble size), fell on March 3, 2018. The most recent report is from March 30, 2024. March has the most reports, 5.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Martinez
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Martinez Wtp, CA, 1 mile north of Martinez at 40 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 88°F and low of 51°F; January is the coolest, at 56°F and 35°F. January is the wettest at 3.9 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 19.4 inches over 40 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 47 days a year, almost all from May to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 17 nights a year. That 19.4 inches is more than at 137 of the 226 California stations used on this site (61%). Pleasant Hill, 4 miles southeast, has its own station (Concord Wwtp, CA): 17.9 inches a year, 1.5 less than here, and the same July average high, 88°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Martinez-Amorco Pier, CA, 3 miles north, averaged 71°F in August and 51°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Port Chicago tide gauge, 6 miles from Martinez, has risen 0.77 ± 0.23 inches per decade from 1976 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 36 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 56 | 35 | 3.9 | 8 | 51 |
| Feb | 61 | 37 | 3.8 | 8 | 53 |
| Mar | 66 | 40 | 2.7 | 6 | 55 |
| Apr | 71 | 43 | 1.3 | 3 | 60 |
| May | 78 | 46 | 0.6 | 2 | 64 |
| Jun | 85 | 50 | 0.3 | 0 | 67 |
| Jul | 88 | 51 | 0.0 | 0 | 69 |
| Aug | 87 | 51 | 0.0 | 0 | 71 |
| Sep | 84 | 50 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Oct | 76 | 46 | 0.8 | 2 | 66 |
| Nov | 64 | 39 | 2.1 | 5 | 59 |
| Dec | 57 | 35 | 3.8 | 7 | 53 |
| Year | 73 | 43 | 19.4 | 40 | 61 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Martinez Wtp, CA (40 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Martinez-Amorco Pier, 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 Martinez
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 35 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Martinez: 31 floods, 2 thunderstorm wind reports, 1 heavy rain event and 1 lightning strike. They killed 2 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $263,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on April 5, 2024.
April 11, 2010: heavy rain event 8 miles from the centre of Martinez — 2 killed, 1 injured, $10,000 damage.
December 2, 2012: flood 9 miles from the centre of Martinez — $250,000 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 Martinez's ZIP code 94553 have filed 187 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $1.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1982: 70 claims (37% of all) and $184,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 13. The year with the most claims was 2005, with 33. 49% 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, 365 have fewer than Martinez.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1982 | 70 | $184,000 |
| Pineapple Express - Southern1998 | 13 | $264,000 |
Contra Costa County, which includes Martinez, has been named in 21 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1969, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 floods, 6 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 coastal storms). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on January 14, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Contra Costa County a Very High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for inland flooding; Relatively High for lightning and heat waves; Relatively Moderate for coastal flooding; Relatively Low for tornadoes and strong wind; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $970.5 million a year, the 8th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $412.5 million (42%), 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.