NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Monterey, 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 Monterey, California 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 Monterey
The highest rating among the 5 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1, reached 2 times; the most recent, on December 6, 1992, passed within a mile of the city centre. Of the 5, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on December 22, 2012. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 79% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Monterey. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 12 times since 2001, with stones up to 1 inch (quarter size). Monterey has more hail reports within 10 miles than 91% of the 705 California cities.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Monterey
By decade
- 2010s1
- 1990s3
- 1980s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 6, 1992 | F1 | 1 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 6, 1992 | F1 | in town | 7 mi | 0 / 2 |
| Dec 22, 2012 | EF0 | 20 mi | 1.07 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 11, 1992 | F0 | 9 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 3, 1987 | F0 | 19 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 Monterey
The Storm Prediction Center has 12 hail reports within 10 miles of Monterey since 2001, made on 9 separate days. Of these, one was 1 inch across or larger, and none reached 2 inches. The largest, 1 inch (quarter size), fell on January 20, 2010. The most recent report is from March 29, 2023. April has the most reports, 4.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Monterey
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Monterey, CA, 1 mile west of Monterey at 260 feet. September is the warmest, with an average high of 71°F and low of 53°F; December is the coolest, at 59°F and 44°F. Highs reach 90°F on about 3 days a year. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 20.6 inches is more than at 145 of the 226 California stations used on this site (64%). Seaside, 4 miles northeast, has its own station (Monterey WFO, CA): 17.2 inches a year, 3.4 less than here, and a September average high of 68°F against 71°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Monterey, CA, 2 miles north, averaged 62°F in September and 55°F in March over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Monterey tide gauge, 2 miles from Monterey, has risen 0.70 ± 0.13 inches per decade from 1973 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 32 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 60 | 45 | 4.4 | 7 | 56 |
| Feb | 61 | 45 | 4.0 | 8 | 56 |
| Mar | 63 | 46 | 3.3 | 7 | 55 |
| Apr | 63 | 47 | 1.5 | 4 | 56 |
| May | 64 | 49 | 0.6 | 2 | 57 |
| Jun | 66 | 51 | 0.2 | 0 | 58 |
| Jul | 67 | 53 | 0.1 | 0 | 60 |
| Aug | 69 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 | 61 |
| Sep | 71 | 53 | 0.1 | 0 | 62 |
| Oct | 71 | 52 | 0.9 | 2 | 60 |
| Nov | 64 | 48 | 1.8 | 5 | 57 |
| Dec | 59 | 44 | 3.6 | 7 | 57 |
| Year | 65 | 49 | 20.6 | 41 | 58 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Monterey, CA (260 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Monterey, 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 Monterey
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 20 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Monterey: 15 floods, 2 thunderstorm wind reports, 2 lightning strikes and 1 heavy rain event. They killed 1 person and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $2,020 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 78 mph, on December 14, 2024.
February 13, 2025: flood 9 miles from the centre of Monterey — 1 killed.
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 Monterey's ZIP code 93940 have filed 43 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.8 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 15. 23% 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, 218 have fewer than Monterey.
Monterey County, which includes Monterey, has been named in 33 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1967, 23 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 floods, 8 severe storms, 7 fires, 2 biological emergencies). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on April 13, 2024. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Monterey County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding; Relatively Moderate for lightning and heat waves; Relatively Low for tornadoes and coastal flooding; Very Low for hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $402.4 million a year, the 17th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $109.3 million (27%), 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 Monterey
- Pacific Grove, CA3 mi
- Pebble Beach, CA3 mi
- Seaside, CA4 mi
- Carmel, CA4 mi
- Marina, CA8 mi
- Castroville, CA15 mi
- Carmel Valley, CA15 mi
- Salinas, CA16 mi
- Watsonville, CA24 mi
- Freedom, CA25 mi
- Aromas, CA25 mi
- San Juan Bautista, CA26 mi
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