NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Newark, 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 Newark, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 12 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 12
- 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 Newark
The highest rating among the 12 tornadoes within 25 miles is F2, reached 2 times; the most recent, on May 5, 1998, came within 11 miles. Of the 12, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on March 20, 2005. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 52% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Newark.
Compare Newark's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Newark
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s7
- 1980s2
- 1950s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 1998 | F2 | 11 mi | 0.6 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 11, 1951 | F2 | 8 mi | 5.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | 23 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 5, 1998 | F1 | 12 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 14, 1980 | F1 | 9 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 18 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 1998 | F0 | 22 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 6, 1998 | F0 | 11 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 8, 1997 | F0 | 17 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 25, 1994 | F0 | 18 mi | 0.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 15 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 29, 1982 | F0 | 18 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 12 of 12, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Newark
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Newark since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Newark
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Fremont, CA, 1 mile northeast of Newark at 38 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 78°F and low of 57°F; December is the coolest, at 58°F and 43°F. February is the wettest at 3.2 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 16.0 inches over 37 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 12 days a year, almost all from June to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 3 nights a year. That 16.0 inches is more than at 111 of the 226 California stations used on this site (49%). Hayward, 8 miles north, has its own station (Hayward Air Terminal, CA): 16.1 inches a year, 0.1 more than here, and an August average high of 76°F against 78°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Redwood City, CA, 10 miles west, 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, 10 miles from Newark, 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 | 43 | 3.0 | 6 | 54 |
| Feb | 61 | 44 | 3.2 | 7 | 55 |
| Mar | 65 | 46 | 2.5 | 6 | 58 |
| Apr | 68 | 48 | 1.2 | 4 | 62 |
| May | 71 | 52 | 0.5 | 2 | 67 |
| Jun | 75 | 55 | 0.2 | 0 | 70 |
| Jul | 78 | 57 | 0.0 | 0 | 73 |
| Aug | 78 | 57 | 0.0 | 0 | 74 |
| Sep | 78 | 56 | 0.1 | 0 | 73 |
| Oct | 73 | 52 | 0.7 | 2 | 69 |
| Nov | 65 | 46 | 1.6 | 4 | 60 |
| Dec | 58 | 43 | 3.0 | 7 | 55 |
| Year | 69 | 50 | 16.0 | 37 | 64 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Fremont, CA (38 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 Newark
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 51 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Newark: 40 floods, 5 flash floods, 3 thunderstorm wind reports, 2 heavy rain events and 1 lightning strike. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $3.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 81 mph, on January 18, 2010. February has had the most flash floods, 3 of 5. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 163 have had fewer than Newark.
December 23, 2012: flood 8 miles from the centre of Newark — $2.7 million damage.
December 11, 2014: flash flood 10 miles from the centre of Newark — $500,000 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
Alameda County, which includes Newark, has been named in 24 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1970, 20 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 severe storms, 7 floods, 2 biological emergencies, 2 fires). 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 Alameda 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 Moderate for tornadoes; Relatively Low for hail and lightning; Very Low for strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $1.88 billion a year, the 6th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $490.5 million (26%), 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 Newark
- Fremont, CA3 mi
- Union City, CA4 mi
- Hayward, CA8 mi
- Palo Alto, CA9 mi
- Menlo Park, CA10 mi
- Mountain View, CA10 mi
- Milpitas, CA10 mi
- Stanford, CA10 mi
- Atherton, CA11 mi
- Sunnyvale, CA11 mi
- San Lorenzo, CA11 mi
- Castro Valley, CA12 mi
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