NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Oakland, 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 Oakland, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 8 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 8
- 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 Oakland
The highest rating among the 8 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1, reached 2 times; the most recent, on March 20, 2005, came within 15 miles. Of the 8, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 68% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Oakland. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 16 times since 1999, with stones up to 0.75 inches (penny size). Oakland has more hail reports within 10 miles than 96% of the 705 California cities.
Compare Oakland's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Oakland
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s3
- 1980s3
- 1950s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | 15 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 14 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 12 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 1998 | F0 | 25 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 6 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 16 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 16 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 10, 1986 | F0 | 25 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 8 of 8, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Oakland
The Storm Prediction Center has 16 hail reports within 10 miles of Oakland since 1999, made on 8 separate days. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.75 inches (penny size), fell on February 9, 1999. The most recent report is from January 16, 2020. March has the most reports, 6.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Oakland
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Oakland Museum, CA, 3 miles west of Oakland at 30 feet. September is the warmest, with an average high of 75°F and low of 57°F; December is the coolest, at 60°F and 45°F. December is the wettest at 4.7 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 22.8 inches over 42 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 5 days a year, almost all from September. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 22.8 inches is more than at 157 of the 226 California stations used on this site (69%). Moraga, 6 miles northeast, has its own station (Berkeley, CA): 26.0 inches a year, 3.2 more than here, and a September average high of 76°F against 75°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, 5 miles west, averaged 69°F in August and 53°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Alameda tide gauge, 5 miles from Oakland, has risen 0.37 ± 0.07 inches per decade from 1939 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 3.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 21 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 | 8 | 53 |
| Feb | 62 | 47 | 4.4 | 7 | 54 |
| Mar | 65 | 49 | 3.2 | 7 | 57 |
| Apr | 67 | 50 | 1.4 | 4 | 61 |
| May | 69 | 53 | 0.8 | 2 | 64 |
| Jun | 72 | 55 | 0.2 | 1 | 67 |
| Jul | 72 | 57 | 0.0 | 0 | 68 |
| Aug | 73 | 58 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Sep | 75 | 57 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Oct | 73 | 55 | 1.1 | 2 | 65 |
| Nov | 66 | 49 | 2.4 | 4 | 59 |
| Dec | 60 | 45 | 4.7 | 8 | 54 |
| Year | 68 | 52 | 22.8 | 42 | 62 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Oakland Museum, CA (30 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Alameda, 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 Oakland
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 131 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Oakland: 115 floods, 11 heavy rain events, 2 flash floods, 2 thunderstorm wind reports and 1 lightning strike. They killed 2 people and injured 7, and the NWS estimated $421,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 63 mph, on August 16, 2020.
November 1, 2008: heavy rain event 3 miles from the centre of Oakland — 1 killed, 5 injured, $15,000 damage.
NWS: “Heavy rain caused many vehicle collisions in the San Francisco East Bay area on Saturday. One crash in particular resulted in a vehicle carrying six passengers flipping into the canal that splits Hegenberger Expressway near Hamilton Street in Oakland.”
March 10, 2023: flood 4 miles from the centre of Oakland — 1 killed, 1 injured.
March 10, 2023: heavy rain event 4 miles from the centre of Oakland — 1 injured.
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 Oakland's 13 ZIP codes have filed 264 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $792,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1982: 99 claims (38% of all) and $223,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 21 and California Atmospheric River in 2023 with 15. 52% 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, 380 have fewer than Oakland.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1982 | 99 | $223,000 |
| Pineapple Express - Southern1998 | 21 | $54,000 |
| California Atmospheric River2023 | 15 | $273,000 |
Alameda County, which includes Oakland, 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.