NHC HURDAT2 · SPC Tornado Database
Hurricanes and Tornadoes That Hit Williams, 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 Williams, 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 Williams
The highest rating among the 6 tornadoes within 25 miles is F0 or EF0, reached 6 times; the most recent, on February 2, 2019, came within 18 miles. Of the 6, one had a path within 5 miles of the city centre, and 6 have come since 2000. Of the 705 California cities on this site, 75% have more tornadoes within 25 miles than Williams.
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Tornadoes within 25 miles of Williams
By decade
- 2010s4
- 2000s2
| Date | Rating | Distance | Path | Killed / injured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2, 2019 | EF0 | 18 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Feb 19, 2013 | EF0 | 8 mi | 0.26 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 23, 2011 | EF0 | 2 mi | 1.09 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 21, 2011 | EF0 | 10 mi | 0.25 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Jan 24, 2009 | EF0 | 18 mi | 0.1 mi | 0 / 0 |
| Mar 20, 2005 | F0 | 20 mi | 1.2 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 Williams
The Storm Prediction Center has no hail reports within 10 miles of Williams since 1955.
Source: NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather reports, data through 2025.
Weather by month in Williams
The nearest NOAA station with 1991–2020 climate normals is Colusa 2 SSW, CA, 10 miles east of Williams at 50 feet. July is the warmest, with an average high of 92°F and low of 60°F; December is the coolest, at 55°F and 38°F. January is the wettest at 3.6 inches of precipitation on average and July and August the driest at 0.0 inches; the year adds up to 17.2 inches over 38 days with at least a tenth of an inch. Highs reach 90°F on about 85 days a year, almost all from April to October. Lows fall below freezing on about 17 nights a year. That 17.2 inches is more than at 124 of the 226 California stations used on this site (55%). Sutter, 24 miles east, has its own station (Marysville Yuba Co Airport, CA): 20.1 inches a year, 2.9 more than here, and a July average high of 96°F against 92°F.
| Month | High °F | Low °F | Precip. in | Days ≥ 0.1" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 55 | 38 | 3.6 | 8 |
| Feb | 60 | 41 | 3.0 | 6 |
| Mar | 67 | 44 | 2.2 | 5 |
| Apr | 73 | 46 | 1.0 | 3 |
| May | 81 | 53 | 0.8 | 2 |
| Jun | 88 | 59 | 0.5 | 1 |
| Jul | 92 | 60 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Aug | 92 | 58 | 0.0 | 0 |
| Sep | 89 | 54 | 0.1 | 0 |
| Oct | 79 | 48 | 0.9 | 2 |
| Nov | 64 | 42 | 1.9 | 4 |
| Dec | 55 | 38 | 3.2 | 7 |
| Year | 75 | 48 | 17.2 | 38 |
Averages for 1991–2020 at Colusa 2 SSW, CA (50 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 Williams
Since 1996, the National Weather Service has logged 9 flood, rain, thunderstorm wind and lightning events that began within 10 miles of Williams: 8 floods and 1 thunderstorm wind report. They killed 1 person and injured 3, and the NWS estimated $7.7 million in property and crop damage. The strongest thunderstorm gust on record here was 58 mph, on April 24, 2016.
December 26, 2025: flood 3 miles from the centre of Williams — 1 killed, 3 injured.
NWS: “Around 3 PM PST on December 26th, a vehicle hydroplaned and crashed on Interstate 5 in Williams, CA in heavy rain. Initially there were 2 minor injuries and 2 critical injuries, but later one of the critical injuries was updated to a fatality.”
February 17, 2017: flood 9 miles from the centre of Williams — $7.0 million damage.
January 1, 2006: flood 2 miles from the centre of Williams — $700,000 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 Williams's ZIP code 95987 have filed 16 claims with the National Flood Insurance Program since 1998, and were paid $438,000 for buildings and contents, in the dollars of each year. The most came from Pineapple Express - Southern in 1998: 14 claims (88% of all) and $79,000. 94% 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, 59 have fewer than Williams.
| Event | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Pineapple Express - Southern1998 | 14 | $79,000 |
Colusa County, which includes Williams, has been named in 19 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 1964, 15 of them major disasters (by incident: 7 severe storms, 6 floods, 2 biological emergencies, 1 coastal storm). The latest major disaster declaration was Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, on January 14, 2023. FEMA's National Risk Index gives Colusa County a Relatively Moderate rating for natural hazard risk overall; by hazard: Relatively Low for inland flooding and heat waves; Very Low for tornadoes, hail, strong wind and lightning. It models the county's expected loss from all 18 hazards it covers at $40.6 million a year, the 49th highest of 58 California counties; of the hazards above, the largest share, $4.1 million (10%), 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 Williams
- Colusa, CA12 mi
- Arbuckle, CA15 mi
- Sutter, CA24 mi
- Willows, CA25 mi
- Lower Lake, CA26 mi
- Live Oak, CA28 mi
- Esparto, CA29 mi
- Hidden Valley Lake, CA30 mi
- Yuba City, CA30 mi
- Gridley, CA30 mi
- Lucerne, CA31 mi
- Middletown, CA32 mi
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