NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Orinda, 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 Orinda, 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 Orinda
The highest rating among the 8 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1 or EF1, reached 3 times; the most recent, on January 23, 2010, came within 23 miles. Of the 8, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 2 have come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 68% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Orinda. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 21 times since 1999, with stones up to 0.75 inches (penny size). Orinda has more hail reports within 10 miles than 99% of the 705 California cities.
Compare Orinda's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Orinda
By decade
- 2010s1
- 2000s1
- 1990s3
- 1980s2
- 1950s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 23, 2010 | EF1 | 23 mi | 1.64 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | 20 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 20 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 10 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 12, 1998 | F0 | 24 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 10 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 10 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 10 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 Orinda
The Storm Prediction Center has 21 hail reports within 10 miles of Orinda since 1999, made on 11 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 March 30, 2024. March has the most reports, 9.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Orinda
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Berkeley, CA, 4 miles west of Orinda at 310 feet. September is the warmest, with an average high of 76°F and low of 54°F; December is the coolest, at 59°F and 43°F. December is the wettest at 5.3 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 26.0 inches over 45 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 6 days a year. Lows fall below freezing on about 1 nights a year. That 26.0 inches is more than at 171 of the 226 California stations used on this site (76%). Lafayette, 4 miles east, has its own station (Concord Wwtp, CA): 17.9 inches a year, 8.1 less than here, and a September average high of 86°F against 76°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, 10 miles southwest, 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, 10 miles from Orinda, 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 | 59 | 43 | 4.8 | 8 | 53 |
| Feb | 62 | 45 | 5.1 | 8 | 54 |
| Mar | 65 | 46 | 3.8 | 7 | 57 |
| Apr | 67 | 47 | 1.8 | 5 | 61 |
| May | 70 | 49 | 0.8 | 2 | 64 |
| Jun | 74 | 52 | 0.3 | 1 | 67 |
| Jul | 74 | 53 | 0.0 | 0 | 68 |
| Aug | 75 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Sep | 76 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Oct | 73 | 52 | 1.2 | 2 | 65 |
| Nov | 65 | 47 | 2.7 | 5 | 59 |
| Dec | 59 | 43 | 5.3 | 8 | 54 |
| Year | 68 | 49 | 26.0 | 45 | 62 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Berkeley, CA (310 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 Orinda
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 128 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Orinda: 112 floods, 10 heavy rain events, 3 thunderstorm wind reports, 2 flash floods and 1 lightning strike. They killed 4 people and injured 8, and the NWS estimated $424,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 63 mph, on August 16, 2020.
April 11, 2010: heavy rain event 7 miles from the centre of Orinda — 2 killed, 1 injured, $10,000 damage.
November 1, 2008: heavy rain event 9 miles from the centre of Orinda — 1 killed, 5 injured, $15,000 damage.
March 10, 2023: flood 9 miles from the centre of Orinda — 1 killed, 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 Orinda's ZIP code 94563 have filed 95 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $802,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Flooding in 1995: 39 claims (41% of all) and $201,000. 47% 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, 308 have fewer than Orinda.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Flooding1995 | 39 | $201,000 |
Contra Costa County, which includes Orinda, has been named in 21 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1969, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 floods, 6 severe storms, 2 biological emergencies, 2 coastal storms). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on January 14, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Contra Costa County a Very High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for inland flooding; Relatively High for lightning and heat waves; Relatively Moderate for coastal flooding; Relatively Low for tornadoes and strong wind; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $970.5 million a year, the 8th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $412.5 million (42%), 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.