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California Flood Stories

3,441 first-hand accounts of flood events in California, ranked by impact. Each is a NOAA-written narrative of the moment.

Flood

Humboldt, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

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Flood

Mendocino, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Humboldt, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Humboldt, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Humboldt, CA · Dec 22, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Mendocino, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Mendocino, CA · Dec 22, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flood

Humboldt, CA · Dec 21, 2025

Beginning mid-December, a series of storm systems impacted Northwest California with the first set of storms bringing particularly heavy rain from December 19th through December 21st.

Read the full account →
Flash Flood$800K damage

Sonoma, CA · Jan 25, 2008

A nearly stationary frontal band hung over parts of the Bay Area bringing intense rainfall for several hours. The hardest hit areas were the coastal sections of Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo Counties.

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Flood

Solano, CA · Oct 13, 2025

An early season storm system brought moderate to heavy snowfall to portions of the southern Cascades and Sierra Nevada mainly above 6500 feet. Storm total snow amounts of 6 to 21 inches were generally observed at and above 6500 feet.

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Flood

Solano, CA · Oct 13, 2025

An early season storm system brought moderate to heavy snowfall to portions of the southern Cascades and Sierra Nevada mainly above 6500 feet. Storm total snow amounts of 6 to 21 inches were generally observed at and above 6500 feet.

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Flood

Colusa, CA · Oct 13, 2025

An early season storm system brought moderate to heavy snowfall to portions of the southern Cascades and Sierra Nevada mainly above 6500 feet. Storm total snow amounts of 6 to 21 inches were generally observed at and above 6500 feet.

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Flash Flood$30K damage

San Bernardino, CA · Jul 12, 1999

Thunderstorms formed in a southwest to northeast band during the evening from the Lucerne Valley through the northwest part of the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Training Center and across I-40 into the Devils Playground.

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Flash Flood$30K damage

San Diego, CA · Feb 26, 2004

A winter storm moving southeast from the Gulf of Alaska, picked up tropical moisture before it moved onshore. The warmer air mass caused the snow level to remain high during most of the precipitaion event, so that measured snow fall was less than eight inches in the mountains.

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Flash Flood$30K damage

Orange, CA · Feb 26, 2004

A winter storm moving southeast from the Gulf of Alaska, picked up tropical moisture before it moved onshore. The warmer air mass caused the snow level to remain high during most of the precipitaion event, so that measured snow fall was less than eight inches in the mountains.

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Flash Flood$30K damage

San Bernardino, CA · Feb 25, 2004

A winter storm moving southeast from the Gulf of Alaska, picked up tropical moisture before it moved onshore. The warmer air mass caused the snow level to remain high during most of the precipitaion event, so that measured snow fall was less than eight inches in the mountains.

Read the full account →
Flash Flood$30K damage

Kern, CA · Jul 20, 2008

An upper-level trough approached California on the 20th, bringing yet another surge of monsoonal moisture into the eastern Kern deserts. Outflow boundaries from nocturnal convection over Arizona and northern Mexico generated pre-dawn showers over the China Lake Naval Air Warfare…

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Flash Flood$30K damage

San Diego, CA · Jan 21, 2010

The fourth, and strongest, in a series of winter storms pounded the region on the 21st and 22nd, bringing another round of gusty winds, heavy rain, thunderstorms, several feet of snow in the mountains, and flooding throughout the CWA.

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Flood$30K damage

Tulare, CA · Oct 10, 2000

An early season convective rain event did economic damage to the Central and Southern San Joaquin Valley. Frontal passage with embedded and post-frontal thunderstorms swept through the Central and South San Joaquin Valley beginning around 0900 PST on the 10th.

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Flood$30K damage

San Mateo, CA · Jan 20, 2010

The third in a series of significant storms brought strong winds and heavy rain to the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas. This storm, the strongest of the week, developed over the Pacific Ocean with a strong parent low pressure based in the Gulf of Alaska.

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Coastal Flood

Northern Monterey Bay, CA · Dec 23, 2024

Long duration high surf caused damage across Monterey Bay and resulted in numerous attempted water rescues on December 23. Around 1244 PST, around 150 feet of the Santa Cruz wharf collapsed and fell into Monterey Bay.

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Flood

Kern, CA · Mar 17, 2012

High pressure ridging became the dominant weather feature during March 8th-10th and brought warm, dry conditions to the area; temperatures were at least several degrees above the seasonal average during much of this period.||The ridge somewhat weakened on March 11th through the…

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Flash Flood$25K damage

San Bernardino, CA · Aug 25, 1998

A small tornado was caught on videotape approximately 5 miles southwest of Nipton. At about the same time, a hood was reportedly ripped off a dump truck in the same vicinity and a truck was blown off Interstate 15 near Highway 164 (the Nipton Road).

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Flash Flood$25K damage

Orange, CA · Feb 26, 2004

A winter storm moving southeast from the Gulf of Alaska, picked up tropical moisture before it moved onshore. The warmer air mass caused the snow level to remain high during most of the precipitaion event, so that measured snow fall was less than eight inches in the mountains.

Read the full account →
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