San Benito County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within San Benito County: 0.
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.

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.

River crests

River gauges

1. Crests are the highest and the recent crests the National Weather Service lists for each river gauge in the county that has a flood stage, not every flood. Flood categories use each gauge's current flood stages; crests from before levees, dams or channel changes may not be comparable. Crests measured on an old datum are left out of the rankings.

NOAA National Water Prediction Service gauge records, retrieved October 30, 2026.

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 county boundary (or inside the county).
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.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by USGS Earthquake-Triggered Ground Failure (10), USGS Conterminous (2), West Coast Slow Moving (Yuankun and others, 2021) (1).

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 27, 2021Debris Flow$4.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Mudslide on Panoche Rd. Preliminary damage estimates from public works.

2. Jan 27, 2021Flood$3.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   New Idria Rd from Panoche Valley to 20 plus miles south, road completely washed out. Exact time of damage unknown, estimate sent by public works.

3. Jan 27, 2021Flood$3.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Coalinga Road damaged from SR25 to Fresno County. Exact time of damage unknown. Damage estimate sent by public works.

4. Jan 27, 2021Flood$2.5 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage to Cienega Rd from Mudstone Ranch to Bird Creek. Damage occurred sometime between the 26th and the end of the event. Estimates of repair cost sent by public works.

5. Jan 27, 2021Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Southside Rd damaged from Hollister to Tres Pinos Creek. Exact time of damage occurrence unknown, estimate sent by public works.

6. Jan 27, 2021Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   King City Road damaged from SR 25 to Monterey County. Exact time of damage occurrence is unknown. Estimates sent by public works.

7. Jan 27, 2021Flood$2.0 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Damage to Salinas Grade Rd from San Juan Bautista to Monterey County. Exact time of damage occurrence unknown, estimates sent b public works.

8. Jan 27, 2021Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Union Road near Riverside Drive flooding on shoulder. Exact time of damage unknown, estimate sent by public works.

9. Jan 27, 2021Flood$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Roadway flooding at Fairview Rd and Mansfield Rd. Damage estimate sent in by public works.

10. Feb 28, 2014Debris Flow$1,500
    National Weather Service narrative

    A Pacific storm system moved across the Bay Area on February 28. It dropped several inches of rainfall and brought gusty winds to the area. This resulted in flooding of urban areas, small streams and creeks, and damage to power lines and trees as well as a few localized mud and rockslides.

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

112°FJul 22, 2006

All-time low

14°FDec 22, 1990

Warmest night

72°FAug 17, 2020

Coldest day

41°F2 times, most recently Dec 22, 1990

Wettest day

2.82 inJan 3, 2006

Snowiest day

1.0 inDec 25, 2000

Hottest year

2014mean 61.4°F

Coldest year

1982mean 56.8°F

Wettest year

198326.26 in

Driest year

20131.58 in

Station Hollister 2 (USC00044025), 275 ft elevation, 1.1 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1975 to October 14, 2026; 92.3% 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.

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.

Neighbouring counties

• 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 USC00044025.
• 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.
• 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.