Mendota

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond this area.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every large fire

1. Large fires mapped by the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program since 1984: 1,000 acres or more in the West, 500 or more in the East. Prescribed burns are excluded. Acres here are the part of each perimeter inside this place.

Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), 1984 to 2026.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Flood insurance figures are for Fresno County, the county that contains Mendota.

Claims by ZIP code

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).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

The drought index is for Fresno County, the county that contains Mendota.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

Every earthquake of magnitude 4 or more within 50 miles

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the city centre.
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Volcanoes within 100 miles

1. U.S. volcanoes within 100 miles, from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. The threat category is the USGS 2018 National Volcanic Threat Assessment, which ranks volcanoes by how hazardous their past eruptions were and how many people and how much infrastructure lie near them. It is not a forecast of eruption.

USGS Volcano Hazards Program, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Landslides mapped in Fresno County.

Mapped by USGS Earthquake-Triggered Ground Failure (5,152), West Coast Slow Moving (Yuankun and others, 2021) (32), USGS Conterminous (15), NASA (6), CA GS (2).

Deadly landslides

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

More event types since 1996

Costliest events since 1996

1. Jan 9, 2023Winter Storm, Fresno - Clovis$8.9 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Fresno County Emergency Manager reported that the widespread flooding and damaging winds that took place on January 9th and January 10th resulted in $8.9 million in property damage throughout Fresno County. Most of this was for road and bridge repairs as well as for the costs of emergency RMO response to clean rock slides, mud slides and debris flows across roads and to pay for overtime and contractors to complete the necessary repairs and cleaning.

2. Aug 19, 2001Wildfire$6.1 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Highway Fire is suspected to have been caused by arson. It burned 4152 acres and forced the evacuation of a large number of residents. There were no fatalities but 8 structures were lost (3 primary and 5 out-buildings). Total cost to contain was over $6M.

3. Jan 11, 2003Wildfire$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The Marks-Nielson Fire began in the early morning hours of the 11th of January and continued to burn until February 14th. The fire was spread through 3 acres of woodchips and other debris piled over 20-feet high in spots. It began by spontaneous combustion and caused a health problem due to its soot for much of the Fresno metropolitan area. With a number of agencies involved along with the Federal EPA intervention, the cost of putting the fire out is estimated to be over $2.5M.

4. Aug 14, 2020Excessive Heat, Fresno$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Daytime highs ranged between 104 and 109 degrees on August 14-15 and August 18 and between 107 and 112 degrees on August 16-17.

5. Aug 6, 1997Wildfire$1.9 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Named the "Choke Fire" it burned more than 3900 acres in the high country of the Southern Sierra Nevada in the Sequoia National Forest. It was a lightning caused fire from thunderstorms associated with monsoonal moisture.

6. Feb 1, 1998Heavy Rain$1.6 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   The following figures reflect estimated losses from the much above-normal rains and flooding of February. Subsequent months with normally increasing agricultural field operations were more significantly impacted by above normal rainfall. Consider this February list abridged and estimated in many respects (note Madera County is omitted, for example). The total rain/flood damage to area agriculture from the cooler and wetter spring in Central California is presented in the May Storm data figures.Fresno County Ag Loss $1.8M Property $1.6MKern County Ag Loss $5.4M Property $12.5MKings County Ag Loss $1.0M Property $20KMerced County Ag Loss $1.4M Property $2.0MTulare County Ag Loss…

7. May 19, 1997Lightning$1.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Lightning spawned and wind driven fire destroyed 600 acres of grassland and 3 upscale homes north-northeast of Fresno. Wind from the thunderstorm provided the driving force pushing the fire through fire-breaks and into expensive homes and through dry pastures.

8. Jan 2, 2006Flood$1.4 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Continuous rain, heavy at times, brought an abnormally high 2.84" of rain to the Fresno Air Terminal, 3.19" in Selma, and 2.25" at Coalinga in a little over 24 hours. A new rainfall record of 1.88" was set for the 2nd of January for Fresno. Flooding was observed in the city of Fresno as 15 ponding basins overflowed. Local flooding was also reported in smaller cities of Huron, Fowler, and Selma. Over 150 houses were damaged within the county. The strong wind downed trees and power lines leaving over 60,000 customers without power at some point.

9. Mar 17, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$1.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   NWS Storm survey team investigated wind damage on the north side of Clovis and determined that a severe thunderstorm produced straight line wind damage at around 230 AM. Several large evergreen trees were downed on homes on the north side of Clovis.

10. Jun 24, 2024Lightning$1.0 million
    National Weather Service narrative

    Dry lightning sparked several wildfires during the afternoon and evening of June 24 east of Reedley and Sanger. These fires became known as the Fresno Lightning Complex which resulted in several evacuations as the fires spread rapidly due to heavy fuel loading. The transmitter for KVPT Channel 18 was destroyed by one of the fires.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

114°F3 times, most recently Jul 7, 2024

All-time low

18°F2 times, most recently Dec 23, 1990

Warmest night

90°FJul 23, 2006

Coldest day

32°F2 times, most recently Dec 14, 1972

Wettest day

2.38 inMar 10, 1995

Snowiest day

1.5 inJan 22, 1962

Hottest year

2014mean 69.1°F

Coldest year

1975mean 60.6°F

Wettest year

198321.61 in

Driest year

20133.01 in

Snowiest season

2.2 in1961-62

Station Fresno Yosemite International (USW00093193), 334 ft elevation, 36.6 miles from the city centre. Daily records from 1948 to October 26, 2026; 100.0% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

Declarations for Fresno County.

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).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00093193.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Volcanoes USGS Volcano Hazards Program, U.S. volcanoes and 2018 threat assessment.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.