NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Stanford, 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 Stanford, California since records began in 1851. Since 1950, 11 tornadoes have touched down within 25 miles, 0 of them rated EF3 or stronger.
- Hurricanes
- 0
- Tropical storms
- 0
- Tornadoes
- 11
- 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 Stanford
The highest rating among the 11 tornadoes within 25 miles is F2, reached 2 times; the most recent, on May 5, 1998, came within 8 miles. Of the 11, 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, 55% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Stanford. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 8 times since 2018, with stones up to 0.35 inches. Stanford has more hail reports within 10 miles than 82% of the 705 California cities.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Stanford
By decade
- 2000s1
- 1990s6
- 1980s2
- 1950s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 1998 | F2 | 8 mi | 0.6 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 11, 1951 | F2 | 5 mi | 5.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 20, 2005 | F1 | 21 mi | 3 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 5, 1998 | F1 | 4 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Jan 14, 1980 | F1 | 16 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Apr 1, 1958 | F1 | 17 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 7, 1998 | F0 | 15 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 6, 1998 | F0 | 8 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 8, 1997 | F0 | 17 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 17, 1992 | F0 | 21 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 10, 1986 | F0 | 21 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
The strongest 11 of 11, by rating and then by deaths. Ratings before February 2007 are on the original Fujita scale.
Hail in Stanford
The Storm Prediction Center has 8 hail reports within 10 miles of Stanford since 2018, made on 4 separate days. None of them reached 1 inch. The largest, 0.35 inches, fell on March 25, 2020. The most recent report is from March 30, 2024.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Stanford
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Palo Alto, CA, 2 miles northeast of Stanford at 25 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 79°F and low of 56°F; December is the coolest, at 58°F and 39°F. February is the wettest at 3.2 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 15.2 inches over 37 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 12 days a year, almost all from May to September. Lows fall below freezing on about 14 nights a year. That 15.2 inches is more than at 105 of the 226 California stations used on this site (46%). Atherton, 3 miles northwest, has its own station (Redwood City, CA): 19.2 inches a year, 4.0 more than here, and a July average high of 81°F against 79°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Redwood City, CA, 6 miles northwest, averaged 74°F in August and 54°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Redwood City tide gauge, 6 miles from Stanford, has risen 1.08 ± 0.25 inches per decade from 1974 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 10.8 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 62 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 58 | 39 | 3.0 | 7 | 54 |
| Feb | 61 | 41 | 3.2 | 7 | 55 |
| Mar | 66 | 44 | 2.2 | 6 | 58 |
| Apr | 70 | 45 | 1.0 | 3 | 62 |
| May | 73 | 50 | 0.4 | 2 | 67 |
| Jun | 79 | 53 | 0.1 | 0 | 70 |
| Jul | 79 | 56 | 0.0 | 0 | 73 |
| Aug | 79 | 55 | 0.0 | 0 | 74 |
| Sep | 80 | 53 | 0.1 | 0 | 73 |
| Oct | 74 | 48 | 0.6 | 2 | 69 |
| Nov | 64 | 43 | 1.6 | 4 | 60 |
| Dec | 58 | 39 | 3.0 | 7 | 55 |
| Year | 70 | 47 | 15.2 | 37 | 64 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Palo Alto, CA (25 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Redwood City, 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 Stanford
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 58 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Stanford: 43 floods, 6 thunderstorm wind reports, 5 flash floods, 2 heavy rain events and 2 lightning strikes. None is recorded as killing or injuring anyone; the NWS estimated $3.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 75 mph, on December 24, 2025. Of the 550 California cities on this site with a flash flood on record, 163 have had fewer than Stanford.
December 23, 2012: flood 3 miles from the centre of Stanford — $2.7 million damage.
December 11, 2014: flash flood 5 miles from the centre of Stanford — $500,000 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
Santa Clara County, which includes Stanford, has been named in 25 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1977, 16 of them major disasters (by incident: 6 fires, 6 floods, 6 severe storms, 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 Santa Clara County a Very High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Very High for inland flooding; Relatively High for coastal flooding and heat waves; Relatively Low for tornadoes, hail and lightning; Very Low for strong wind. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $1.97 billion a year, the 4th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $720.2 million (37%), 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 Stanford
- Palo Alto, CA2 mi
- Menlo Park, CA2 mi
- Atherton, CA3 mi
- Portola Valley, CA4 mi
- Redwood City, CA5 mi
- Mountain View, CA5 mi
- Los Altos, CA5 mi
- San Carlos, CA7 mi
- Sunnyvale, CA9 mi
- Belmont, CA9 mi
- Cupertino, CA10 mi
- Newark, CA10 mi
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