NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit South San Francisco, 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 South San Francisco, 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 South San Francisco
The highest rating among the 6 tornadoes within 25 miles is F1, reached 2 times; the most recent, on March 20, 2005, passed within a mile of the city centre. Of the 6, 2 had paths within 5 miles of the city centre, and one has come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 75% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than South San Francisco. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 12 times since 2017, with stones up to 0.5 inches (marble size). South San Francisco has more hail reports within 10 miles than 91% of the 705 California cities.
Compare South San Francisco's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of South San Francisco
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s3
- 1980s1
- 1950s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | in town | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 5 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 5, 1998 | F0 | 20 mi | 1.5 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 1998 | F0 | 13 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 16 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 10, 1986 | F0 | 10 mi | 0.2 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 South San Francisco
The Storm Prediction Center has 12 hail reports within 10 miles of South San Francisco since 2017, made on 11 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.
Radar-estimated hail days in South San Francisco since 2019 →
Weather by month in South San Francisco
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is San Francisco International Airport, CA, 4 miles southeast of South San Francisco 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%). Daly City, 3 miles northwest, has its own station (San Francisco Oceanside, CA): 20.6 inches a year, 1.0 more than here, and a September average high of 65°F against 75°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Alameda, CA, 11 miles northeast, averaged 69°F in August and 53°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the San Francisco tide gauge, 11 miles from South San Francisco, has risen 0.78 ± 0.03 inches per decade from 1897 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 37 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 South San Francisco
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 162 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of South San Francisco: 121 floods, 15 heavy rain events, 14 thunderstorm wind reports, 9 lightning strikes and 3 flash floods. They killed 2 people and injured 12, and the NWS estimated $291,000 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 8 miles from the centre of South San Francisco — 1 killed, 3 injured.
January 14, 2023: thunderstorm wind 9 miles from the centre of South San Francisco — 1 killed.
March 14, 2012: heavy rain event 2 miles from the centre of South San Francisco — 5 injured, $50,000 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 South San Francisco's ZIP code 94080 have filed 86 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1982, and were paid $3.7 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2014, with 24. 15% 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, 298 have fewer than South San Francisco.
San Mateo County, which includes South San Francisco, 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 South San Francisco
- San Bruno, CA2 mi
- Brisbane, CA3 mi
- Daly City, CA3 mi
- Pacifica, CA4 mi
- Millbrae, CA4 mi
- Burlingame, CA7 mi
- San Francisco, CA7 mi
- Montara, CA9 mi
- San Mateo, CA9 mi
- Moss Beach, CA10 mi
- El Granada, CA10 mi
- Foster City, CA11 mi
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