NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Placerville, 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 Placerville, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 6 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 6
- 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 Placerville
The highest rating among the 6 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1 or EF1, reached 3 times; the most recent, on December 24, 2015, came within 11 miles. Of the 6, none had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 3 have come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on November 18, 2020. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 75% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Placerville. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 2 times since 2015, with stones up to 1 inch (quarter size). Of the 705 California cities, 57% have more hail reports within 10 miles than Placerville.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Placerville
By decade
- 2020s1
- 2010s2
- 1990s1
- 1980s1
- 1970s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 24, 2015 | EF1 | 11 mi | 6.21 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 23, 2010 | EF1 | 12 mi | 1.99 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 19, 1988 | F1 | 20 mi | 1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Nov 18, 2020 | EF0 | 9 mi | 4.39 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 23, 1990 | F0 | 22 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Oct 1, 1972 | F0 | 17 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 6 of 6, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Placerville
The Storm Prediction Center has 2 hail reports within 10 miles of Placerville since 2015. Of these, one was 1 inch across or larger, and none reached 2 inches. The largest, 1 inch (quarter size), fell on November 15, 2015. The most recent report is from May 21, 2019.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Placerville
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Pacific House, CA, 16 miles east of Placerville at 3,450 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 90°F and low of 53°F; December is the coolest, at 43°F and 31°F. January is the wettest at 9.6 inches of precipitation on average and July the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 54.5 inches over 62 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 58 days a year, almost all from June to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 97 nights a year. Snowfall averages 58.2 inches a year, most of it in February. That 54.5 inches is more than at 219 of the 226 California stations used on this site (97%). Garden Valley, 8 miles north, has its own station (Auburn, CA): 36.1 inches a year, 18.4 less than here, and a July average high of 93°F against 90°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Snow in |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 44 | 32 | 9.6 | 9 | 10.1 |
| Feb | 50 | 31 | 8.8 | 9 | 17.3 |
| Mar | 56 | 33 | 8.8 | 9 | 13.5 |
| Apr | 63 | 36 | 4.9 | 7 | 5.4 |
| May | 72 | 42 | 3.2 | 5 | 0.6 |
| Jun | 82 | 47 | 0.9 | 2 | 0.0 |
| Jul | 90 | 53 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Aug | 89 | 53 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.0 |
| Sep | 83 | 49 | 0.6 | 1 | 0.0 |
| Oct | 66 | 41 | 2.9 | 3 | 0.1 |
| Nov | 51 | 35 | 5.3 | 6 | 3.8 |
| Dec | 43 | 31 | 9.4 | 10 | 7.4 |
| Year | 66 | 40 | 54.5 | 62 | 58.2 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Pacific House, CA (3,450 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals. 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 Placerville
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 35 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Placerville: 23 floods, 11 heavy rain events and 1 thunderstorm wind report. They killed 2 people and injured 0, and the NWS estimated $656,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 46 mph, on January 10, 2023.
December 1, 2012: heavy rain event 8 miles from the centre of Placerville — 1 killed.
January 3, 2023: flood 7 miles from the centre of Placerville — 1 killed.
February 17, 2017: flood 5 miles from the centre of Placerville — $500,000 damage.
NWS: “There was a significant hole in a roadway due to an underground culvert failure.”
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 Placerville's ZIP code 95667 have filed 21 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1980, and were paid $307,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 43% 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, 95 have fewer than Placerville.
El Dorado County, which includes Placerville, has been named in 27 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 floods, 8 severe storms, 7 fires, 2 biological emergencies). 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 El Dorado County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Moderate for inland flooding and lightning; Relatively Low for strong wind and heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes and hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $124.3 million a year, the 34th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $55.9 million (45%), 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 Placerville
- Diamond Springs, CA3 mi
- El Dorado, CA6 mi
- Camino, CA7 mi
- Garden Valley, CA8 mi
- Cameron Park, CA11 mi
- Rescue, CA11 mi
- Somerset, CA14 mi
- Pollock Pines, CA14 mi
- Georgetown, CA14 mi
- Cool, CA14 mi
- El Dorado Hills, CA15 mi
- Plymouth, CA17 mi
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