NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Mohave Valley, AZ
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 Mohave Valley, Arizona since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 5 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 5
- 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 Mohave Valley
The highest rating among the 5 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1, reached 3 times; the most recent, on April 21, 2001, came within 3 miles. Of the 5, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. Of the 134 Arizona cities on this site, 60% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Mohave Valley. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 8 times since 1997, with stones up to 1.75 inches (golf ball size). Of the 134 Arizona cities, 57% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Mohave Valley.
Compare Mohave Valley's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Mohave Valley
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s3
- 1970s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21, 2001 | F1 | 3 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 22, 1996 | F1 | 19 mi | 5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1972 | F1 | 10 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Aug 7, 1997 | F0 | 20 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 22, 1996 | F0 | 24 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 5 of 5, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Mohave Valley
The Storm Prediction Center has 8 hail reports within 10 miles of Mohave Valley since 1997. Of these, 5 were 1 inch across or larger, and none reached 2 inches. The largest, 1.75 inches (golf ball size), fell on August 25, 2008. The most recent report is from May 6, 2025.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Mohave Valley
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Needles Airport, CA, 9 miles south of Mohave Valley at 890 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 111°F and low of 87°F; December is the coolest, at 65°F and 45°F. February is the wettest at 0.8 inches of precipitation on average and June the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 4.2 inches over 11 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 177 days a year, almost all from March to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 2 nights a year. That 4.2 inches is more than at 3 of the 76 Arizona stations used on this site (4%). Fort Mohave, 9 miles north, has its own station (Bullhead City, AZ): 5.5 inches a year, 1.3 more than here, and the same July average high, 111°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 66 | 46 | 0.7 | 2 |
| Feb | 71 | 49 | 0.8 | 2 |
| Mar | 79 | 54 | 0.5 | 1 |
| Apr | 87 | 61 | 0.2 | 1 |
| May | 96 | 70 | 0.1 | 0 |
| Jun | 106 | 80 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Jul | 111 | 87 | 0.3 | 1 |
| Aug | 109 | 85 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Sep | 103 | 77 | 0.3 | 1 |
| Oct | 90 | 65 | 0.2 | 1 |
| Nov | 75 | 53 | 0.3 | 1 |
| Dec | 65 | 45 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Year | 88 | 64 | 4.2 | 11 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Needles Airport, CA (890 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.
Floods, thunderstorm wind and lightning near Mohave Valley
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 124 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Mohave Valley: 61 flash floods, 54 thunderstorm wind reports, 5 floods and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 6, and the NWS estimated $10.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 90 mph, on August 25, 2008. August has had the most flash floods, 20 of 61. Of the 130 Arizona cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 117 have had fewer than Mohave Valley.
September 4, 2009: thunderstorm wind 9 miles from the centre of Mohave Valley — 4 injured, $500,000 damage.
August 12, 2014: thunderstorm wind 5 miles from the centre of Mohave Valley — 1 injured, $1.0 million damage.
September 4, 2012: thunderstorm wind 2 miles from the centre of Mohave Valley — 1 injured, $250,000 damage.
NWS: “The front windows were broken out of a retail store, injuring one person. Numerous trees and power poles were blown down, and about 30 homes had wind damage to the roofs, mainly in the Plantation Drive area.”
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 Mohave Valley's ZIP code 86440 have filed 24 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1983, and were paid $356,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1983: 10 claims (42% of all) and $251,000. 42% of the claims carry the name of a storm or flood event; the rest have no event name. Of the 50 Arizona cities on this site with 10 or more claims, 17 have fewer than Mohave Valley.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1983 | 10 | $251,000 |
Mohave County, which includes Mohave Valley, has been named in 15 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1977, 9 of them major disasters (by incident: 4 floods, 4 severe storms, 3 fires, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Covid-19 Pandemic, on April 4, 2020. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Mohave County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for lightning; Relatively High for inland flooding and heat waves; Relatively Moderate for strong wind; Relatively Low for hail; Very Low for tornadoes. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $104.9 million a year, the 6th highest of 15 Arizona counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $73.6 million (70%), 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 Mohave Valley
- Needles, CA6 mi
- Fort Mohave, AZ9 mi
- Bullhead City, AZ16 mi
- Laughlin, NV18 mi
- Golden Valley, AZ28 mi
- Lake Havasu City, AZ31 mi
- Kingman, AZ42 mi
- Parker, AZ57 mi
- Boulder City, NV76 mi
- Henderson, NV82 mi
- Bagdad, AZ86 mi
- Blythe, CA87 mi
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