NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit San Bruno, 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 San Bruno, 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 San Bruno
The strongest of the 8 tornadoes within 25 miles was an F2 on January 11, 1951; its path came within 24 miles. Of the 8, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. The most recent tornado was on March 20, 2005. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 68% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than San Bruno. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 10 times since 2017, with stones up to 0.5 inches (marble size). San Bruno has more hail reports within 10 miles than 88% of the 705 California cities.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of San Bruno
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s4
- 1980s1
- 1950s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 11, 1951 | F2 | 24 mi | 5.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | 2 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 5, 1998 | F1 | 24 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 4 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 21 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 1998 | F0 | 11 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 17 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 10, 1986 | F0 | 9 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 San Bruno
The Storm Prediction Center has 10 hail reports within 10 miles of San Bruno since 2017, made on 9 separate days. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.5 inches (marble size), fell on November 29, 2018. The most recent report is from March 10, 2021. January has the most reports, 5.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in San Bruno
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is San Francisco International Airport, CA, 3 miles east of San Bruno at 8 feet. September is the warmest, with an average high of 75°F and low of 56°F; January is the coolest, at 58°F and 45°F. December is the wettest at 4.1 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 19.6 inches over 39 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 4 days a year, almost all from September. A night below freezing comes less than once a year on average. That 19.6 inches is more than at 138 of the 226 California stations used on this site (61%). Pacifica, 3 miles west, has its own station (Pacifica 4 SSE, CA): 32.0 inches a year, 12.4 more than here, and a September average high of 72°F against 75°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, 12 miles northeast, 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, 12 miles from San Bruno, 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 | 58 | 45 | 3.9 | 7 | 53 |
| Feb | 61 | 46 | 4.0 | 8 | 54 |
| Mar | 63 | 48 | 2.7 | 6 | 57 |
| Apr | 66 | 49 | 1.4 | 3 | 61 |
| May | 68 | 52 | 0.5 | 2 | 64 |
| Jun | 72 | 54 | 0.1 | 1 | 67 |
| Jul | 73 | 55 | 0.0 | 0 | 68 |
| Aug | 73 | 56 | 0.0 | 0 | 69 |
| Sep | 75 | 56 | 0.1 | 0 | 69 |
| Oct | 72 | 53 | 0.8 | 2 | 65 |
| Nov | 64 | 49 | 2.0 | 4 | 59 |
| Dec | 58 | 45 | 4.1 | 7 | 54 |
| Year | 67 | 51 | 19.6 | 39 | 62 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at San Francisco International Airport, CA (8 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 San Bruno
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 130 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of San Bruno: 95 floods, 13 thunderstorm wind reports, 11 heavy rain events, 7 lightning strikes and 4 flash floods. They killed 1 person and injured 8, and the NWS estimated $391,000 in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 97 mph, on December 14, 2024.
October 13, 2009: heavy rain event 7 miles from the centre of San Bruno — 1 killed, 3 injured.
March 14, 2012: heavy rain event 2 miles from the centre of San Bruno — 5 injured, $50,000 damage.
NWS: “Two accidents shut down Highway 1 for brief periods. One occurred on March 14 which was a head-on crash just south of Devil's Slide.”
September 12, 2009: lightning strike 9 miles from the centre of San Bruno — $120,000 damage.
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 San Bruno's ZIP code 94066 have filed 29 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $315,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. 55% 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, 142 have fewer than San Bruno.
San Mateo County, which includes San Bruno, has been named in 24 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1977, 17 of them major disasters (by incident: 7 floods, 7 severe storms, 3 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 San Mateo County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding and coastal flooding; Relatively Moderate for lightning and heat waves; 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 $740.0 million a year, the 11th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $212.3 million (29%), 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 San Bruno
- South San Francisco, CA2 mi
- Millbrae, CA2 mi
- Pacifica, CA3 mi
- Brisbane, CA4 mi
- Burlingame, CA5 mi
- Daly City, CA5 mi
- Montara, CA8 mi
- San Mateo, CA8 mi
- Moss Beach, CA8 mi
- El Granada, CA8 mi
- San Francisco, CA9 mi
- Foster City, CA10 mi
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