63 flood insurance claims·$698,721 paid·6 federal flood & hurricane disasters
Share of the whole county outline, rivers and lakes included; parts FEMA hasn’t mapped count as zero.
Shaded areas are FEMA’s mapped flood hazard zones in and around Madera County, California. Zoomed out they are simplified; at street level the map switches to FEMA’s exact layer. Tap anywhere to check that spot, or search an address above.
Standard riverine and localized flooding dominate the flood history of Madera County, accounting for 71 out of 76 recorded events over the last 30 years, alongside 5 flash flood events. Recent weather patterns illustrate this risk, such as the strong low pressure system in January 2023 that tapped into a deep tropical moisture fetch and produced widespread heavy precipitation totals of 3 to 6 inches in the Sierra Nevada. Another system in February 2025 brought widespread moderate to heavy precipitation and nuisance flooding alongside damaging wind gusts.
National Flood Insurance Program claims data indicates that property owners in FEMA-designated Zone A face the highest frequency of risk, accumulating 34 claims with an average payout of $35,282 and an average recorded water depth of 10 inches. However, properties in Zone X and unshaded Zone X sectors also experience losses, with the single unshaded Zone X claim recording an average water depth of 58 inches and a $75,057 payout, while Zone X claims averaged 16 inches of recorded water depth. Homeowners, real estate agents, and journalists should pay the closest attention to properties situated within mapped high-risk Zone A, as well as unshaded Zone X areas where individual flood events can result in significant structural water depths and financial payouts.
Summary written from NOAA storm reports and NFIP claims for this county. Not a prediction.
3% of Madera County’s flood insurance claims were on properties rated outside FEMA’s high-risk zones.
35 NFIP claims with a recorded rated flood zone, 1978 to date. The zone is the one FEMA used to rate that policy, which may not match today’s map. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
In flood insurance claims here that reported a flood depth, the average was 12 inches.
Drawn to scale against an 80-inch door. Even a few inches soaks flooring, the bottom of the drywall and anything plugged in near the floor.
Average of the depths reported on claims (zero and implausible values left out); FEMA’s record doesn’t say exactly where each depth was measured. Source: OpenFEMA NFIP claims.
The worst year was 1993, with 6 claims and $110,845 paid, the year of Severe Winter Storm, Mud & Land Slides, & Flooding.
Bar height is scaled by square root so ordinary years stay visible next to the worst one. NFIP claims by year of loss. Source: OpenFEMA.
56 NOAA storm reports from Madera County describe what happened, in the words of the forecasters who covered it. Read the California flood stories →
25 federal disaster declarations since 1969, 6 of them floods, coastal storms or hurricanes.
| Disaster | Began |
|---|---|
| Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Mar 9, 2023 |
| Severe Winter Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Feb 21, 2023 |
| Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, And Mudslides | Jan 8, 2023 |
| Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides | Dec 27, 2022 |
| Creek Fire | Sep 6, 2020 |
| Wildfires | Sep 4, 2020 |
| Mission Fire | Sep 4, 2017 |
| Railroad Fire | Aug 29, 2017 |
Weather and water disasters only; most recent first. Source: OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations.
76 since 1996: 5 flash floods and 71 river or area floods.
| Event | Date | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Flood | Feb 13, 2025 | — |
| Flood | Jan 14, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Mar 12, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Mar 10, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jan 10, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2023 | — |
| Flood | Jan 9, 2023 | $20,000 |
| Flash Flood | Jan 9, 2023 | — |
— = no damage estimate in the record. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Flood · Feb 13, 2025. A large upper low pressure system and associated trough moved across California on February 13 bringing widespread moderate to heavy precipitation to the area along with damaging wind gusts. Several reports of nuisance flooding were reported on February 13. There were also several reports of trees and power lines knocked down by strong wind gusts as several station reported gusts above 60 mph and a few stations ha…
Flood · Jan 14, 2023. Another strong low pressure system impacted central California as it moved eastward across northern California on January 14. The deeper moisture associated with this system arrived during the evening on January 13 and the precipitation continued across the area until the evening of January 14 when it finally tapered off. Strong upper jet dynamics associated with this system produced a period of widespread heavy p…
Flood · Mar 12, 2023. Following the departure of the warm and moist storm which produced widespread flooding across the area on March 9 and 10, another moist system moved through central California on March 11 and 12. While precipitation amounts were generally much lower with this system with most of the Sierra Nevada picking up between 1 and 2 inches of liquid precipitation and adjacent foothills picking up between a half inch and an…
Flood · Mar 10, 2023. A large upper trough off the Pacific Northwest coast pulled up a deep moisture fetch from the Pacific Ocean which spread inland into central California on March 9 and 10. This atmospheric river event produced 4 to 8 inches of liquid precipitation across much of the Sierra Nevada. With this moisture being of tropical origin, snow levels were high and were above 9500 feet for much of this event. The rain falling on…
National Weather Service narratives, lightly trimmed. Source: NOAA Storm Events Database.
Every colour on the map above is a place on this drawing: where the ground sits relative to the flood FEMA plans for.
If a building in Madera County is in a high-risk zone (A or V) and its mortgage comes from a federally regulated or insured lender, or is federally backed, flood insurance is required.
Outside those zones it is optional, and often worth having: from 2014 to 2024 nearly one-third of NFIP claims came from outside the high-risk Special Flood Hazard Area. Since Risk Rating 2.0, NFIP premiums are set for each building, so the only reliable price is a quote: FloodSmart.gov or a local agent.