NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Vacaville, 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 Vacaville, 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 Vacaville
The highest rating among the 8 tornadoes within 25 miles is F0 or EF0, reached 8 times; the most recent, on September 28, 2019, came within 19 miles. Of the 8, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 5 have come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 68% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Vacaville. Hail has been reported within 10 miles 4 times since 1981, with stones up to 1 inch (quarter size). Vacaville has more hail reports within 10 miles than 55% of the 705 California cities.
Compare Vacaville's storm record with another city →
Tornadoes within 25 miles of Vacaville
By decade
- 2010s4
- 2000s1
- 1990s2
- 1980s1
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 28, 2019 | EF0 | 19 mi | 1.7 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 27, 2016 | EF0 | 13 mi | 0.19 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 28, 2014 | EF0 | 24 mi | 0.74 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Apr 7, 2011 | EF0 | 11 mi | 0.11 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 11, 2005 | F0 | 1 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| May 12, 1998 | F0 | 11 mi | 0.2 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Dec 23, 1996 | F0 | 8 mi | 0.3 mi | 0 / 1 |
| Sep 18, 1989 | F0 | 18 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 Vacaville
The Storm Prediction Center has 4 hail reports within 10 miles of Vacaville since 1981. Of these, one was 1 inch across or larger, and none reached 2 inches. The largest, 1 inch (quarter size), fell on May 18, 1994. The most recent report is from November 2, 2015.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Vacaville
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Vacaville Nut Tree Airport, CA, 2 miles north of Vacaville at 109 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 95°F and low of 59°F; December is the coolest, at 58°F and 37°F. January is the wettest at 5.3 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 25.0 inches over 37 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 88 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 21 nights a year. That 25.0 inches is more than at 167 of the 226 California stations used on this site (74%). Fairfield, 8 miles southwest, has its own station (Fairfield, CA): 24.6 inches a year, 0.4 less than here, and a July average high of 90°F against 95°F.
Water temperature at the NOAA tide station Port Chicago, CA, 21 miles south, averaged 71°F in August and 51°F in January over 2021–2025. No month averaged 80°F. Sea level at the Port Chicago tide gauge, 21 miles from Vacaville, has risen 0.77 ± 0.23 inches per decade from 1976 to 2025, NOAA's linear trend; at that pace it is 7.7 inches in a hundred years. That is faster than at 36 of the 144 U.S. gauges with a NOAA trend.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" | Water °F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 58 | 38 | 5.3 | 6 | 51 |
| Feb | 63 | 40 | 5.1 | 7 | 52 |
| Mar | 68 | 43 | 3.7 | 6 | 55 |
| Apr | 73 | 46 | 1.3 | 3 | 60 |
| May | 81 | 51 | 0.8 | 2 | 64 |
| Jun | 90 | 56 | 0.2 | 0 | 68 |
| Jul | 95 | 59 | 0.0 | 0 | 70 |
| Aug | 94 | 58 | 0.0 | 0 | 71 |
| Sep | 91 | 56 | 0.1 | 0 | 70 |
| Oct | 80 | 49 | 1.1 | 2 | 65 |
| Nov | 67 | 42 | 2.3 | 4 | 59 |
| Dec | 58 | 37 | 5.1 | 7 | 52 |
| Year | 76 | 48 | 25.0 | 37 | 61 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Vacaville Nut Tree Airport, CA (109 ft), from NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals; water temperature: average of hourly readings 2021–2025 at the NOAA tide station Port Chicago, 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 Vacaville
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 24 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Vacaville: 20 floods, 3 heavy rain events and 1 thunderstorm wind report. They killed 2 people and injured 1, and the NWS estimated $15.3 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 92 mph, on December 22, 1996.
January 1, 2006: flood 1 mile from the centre of Vacaville — 1 killed, 1 injured, $15.0 million damage.
January 4, 2023: flood 5 miles from the centre of Vacaville — 1 killed.
January 10, 2005: flood 1 mile from the centre of Vacaville — $250,000 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 Vacaville's 2 ZIP codes have filed 144 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1978, and were paid $4.4 million for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The year with the most claims was 2005, with 53. 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, 347 have fewer than Vacaville.
Solano County, which includes Vacaville, has been named in 30 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 22 of them major disasters (by incident: 8 floods, 7 fires, 7 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 Solano County a Relatively High rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively High for inland flooding and coastal flooding; Relatively Moderate for lightning; Relatively Low for tornadoes, strong wind and heat waves; Very Low for hail. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $292.1 million a year, the 20th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $141.1 million (48%), 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.