NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Nipomo, 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 Nipomo, 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 Nipomo
The highest rating among the 5 tornadoes within 25 miles is EF1, reached 2 times; the most recent, on February 7, 2024, came within 22 miles. Of the 5, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 4 have come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 79% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Nipomo.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Nipomo
By decade
- 2020s2
- 2000s2
- 1990s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 7, 2024 | EF1 | 9 mi | 0.69 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 2024 | EF1 | 22 mi | 4.87 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 2, 2004 | F0 | 9 mi | 0.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 29, 2001 | F0 | 7 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 5, 1998 | F0 | 20 mi | 0.3 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 Nipomo
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Nipomo since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Nipomo
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Santa Maria Public Airport, CA, 10 miles south of Nipomo at 242 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 74°F and low of 55°F; December is the coolest, at 64°F and 40°F. February is the wettest at 2.9 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 13.4 inches over 26 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 6 days a year, almost all from September to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 9 nights a year. That 13.4 inches is more than at 82 of the 226 California stations used on this site (36%). Arroyo Grande, 7 miles northwest, has its own station (Pismo Beach, CA): 18.0 inches a year, 4.6 more than here, and an August average high of 71°F against 74°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Port San Luis, CA, 17 miles northwest, averaged 61°F in September and 53°F in April over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Port San Luis tide gauge, 17 miles from Nipomo, has risen 0.39 ± 0.06 inches per decade from 1945 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 3.9 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 22 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 65 | 41 | 2.7 | 5 | 56 |
| Feb | 65 | 43 | 2.9 | 6 | 55 |
| Mar | 66 | 44 | 2.6 | 4 | 54 |
| Apr | 68 | 45 | 0.9 | 2 | 53 |
| May | 69 | 49 | 0.4 | 1 | 55 |
| Jun | 71 | 52 | 0.1 | 0 | 57 |
| Jul | 73 | 55 | 0.0 | 0 | 59 |
| Aug | 74 | 55 | 0.0 | 0 | 60 |
| Sep | 75 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 | 61 |
| Oct | 75 | 50 | 0.5 | 1 | 59 |
| Nov | 70 | 44 | 1.1 | 2 | 57 |
| Dec | 64 | 40 | 2.1 | 4 | 57 |
| Year | 70 | 48 | 13.4 | 26 | 57 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Santa Maria Public Airport, CA (242 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Port San Luis, 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 Nipomo
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 14 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Nipomo: 10 flash floods, 3 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 flood. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 77 mph, on December 9, 1996. February has had the most flash floods, 3 of 10. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 285 have had fewer than Nipomo.
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 Nipomo's ZIP code 93444 have filed 36 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1983, and were paid $517,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2001, with 19. 28% 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, 182 have fewer than Nipomo.
San Luis Obispo County, which includes Nipomo, has been named in 28 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1967, 22 of them major disasters (by incident: 10 floods, 8 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 fires). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on April 13, 2024. FEMA's National Risk Index gives San Luis Obispo County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding; Relatively Low for coastal flooding, lightning and heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes, hail and strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $213.9 million a year, the 24th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $109.9 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 Nipomo
- Arroyo Grande, CA7 mi
- Guadalupe, CA7 mi
- Oceano, CA8 mi
- Santa Maria, CA9 mi
- Grover Beach, CA9 mi
- Pismo Beach, CA12 mi
- San Luis Obispo, CA19 mi
- Vandenberg Afb, CA21 mi
- Lompoc, CA27 mi
- Los Osos, CA27 mi
- Morro Bay, CA31 mi
- Santa Margarita, CA31 mi
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