Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Oceanside, CA

The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Vista, CA, 5 miles northwest of Oceanside at 430 feet. August is the warmest, with an average high of 81°F and low of 63°F; December is the coolest, at 65°F and 45°F. February is the wettest at 3.1 inches of precipitation on average and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 13.5 inches over 25 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 19 days a year. Lows fall below freezing on about 1 nights a year. That 13.5 inches is more than at 83 of the 226 California stations used on this site (37%). San Marcos, 3 miles southeast, has its own station (Escondido #2, CA): 14.7 inches a year, 1.2 more than here, and an August average high of 89°F against 81°F.

Water temperature at the NOAA tide station La Jolla, CA, 21 miles south, averaged 68°F in August and 58°F in January and February over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the La Jolla tide gauge, 21 miles from Oceanside, has risen 0.80 ± 0.04 inches per decade from 1924 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 8.0 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 39 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.

Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 79 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Oceanside: 40 floods, 16 flash floods, 10 thunderstorm wind reports, 9 heavy rain events and 4 lightning strikes. They killed 0 people and injured 2, and the NWS estimated $637,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 64 mph, on January 6, 2016. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 400 have had fewer than Oceanside.

Flood insurance policyholders in Oceanside's 4 ZIP codes have filed 183 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $2.3 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1980: 60 claims (33% of all) and $767,000, then Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998 with 24. The year with the most claims was 1998, with 34. 49% 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, 364 have fewer than Oceanside.