Los Angeles County, California: hazard history
What federal records show has already happened here: disaster declarations, storms, and flood insurance claims. This is a record of the past. It is not a forecast and not a hazard score.
At a glance
What this means
- The event NOAA recorded most often here is High Wind, with 248 records.
- The costliest single record is High Surf in 2014: $40.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Wildfire in 2025, with 17 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 88 disasters that named this county, most often for fire.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 1998, with 1,399 claims.
What this can't tell you
- What happens next. Past events do not set the odds of the next one.
- Anything before 1996 from NOAA. That is when NOAA began recording every event type; earlier files hold only tornado, hail and wind, so they are left out on purpose.
- Today's cost. Damage and payments are in the dollars of the year they happened.
- A flood rate. NFIP counts claims but not how many homes were insured, and many flooded homes carry no flood insurance.
- Earthquakes, wildfire perimeters or radar-detected hail. Those records are not tied to counties.
Federal disaster declarations (FEMA)
FEMA declared 88 disasters that named Los Angeles County between 1969 and 2025.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 61 | 2025 |
| Flood | 10 | 2023 |
| Severe Storm | 8 | 2024 |
| Earthquake | 3 | 1994 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Freezing | 2 | 2007 |
| Coastal Storm | 1 | 1983 |
| Hurricane | 1 | 2005 |
Most recent declarations
- FM-5605 2025 · Fire · Canyon Fire
- FM-5549 2025 · Fire · Palisades Fire
- FM-5551 2025 · Fire · Hurst Fire
- DR-4856 2025 · Fire · Wildfires And Straight-line Winds
- FM-5550 2025 · Fire · Eaton Fire
- FM-5548 2024 · Fire · Franklin Fire
- FM-5537 2024 · Fire · Bridge Fire
- DR-4769 2024 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms, Tornadoes, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
- EM-3592 2023 · Flood · Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
- DR-4699 2023 · Severe Storm · Severe Winter Storms, Straight-line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
Not counted above: 35 statewide declarations, which covered every county in California. A declaration is a decision to send federal help, not a measure of how bad an event was. Records run from 1953. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries.
Storms recorded by NOAA, by type
| Event type | Records | Deaths | Injuries | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Wind | 248 | 2 | 2 | $0 |
| Flash Flood | 220 | 7 | 4 | $1.3M |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 82 | 0 | 3 | $8K |
| Winter Storm | 60 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Wildfire | 47 | 27 | 87 | $36.5M |
| Debris Flow | 25 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Flood | 25 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Hail | 23 | 0 | 0 | $3.5M |
| Tornado | 18 | 0 | 2 | $0 |
| Funnel Cloud | 10 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Lightning | 10 | 3 | 13 | $0 |
| Excessive Heat | 9 | 18 | 0 | $0 |
| Heavy Rain | 9 | 0 | 4 | $5.0M |
| High Surf | 9 | 3 | 0 | $40.0M |
| Heavy Snow | 7 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Waterspout | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Rip Current | 4 | 4 | 1 | $0 |
| Dust Devil | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Heat | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tropical Storm | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Weather | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Frost/Freeze | 2 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Strong Wind | 2 | 0 | 0 | $50K |
| Avalanche | 1 | 3 | 3 | $0 |
| Blizzard | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Sneakerwave | 1 | 1 | 4 | $0 |
| Storm Surge/Tide | 1 | 0 | 27 | $0 |
Records start in 1996. Damage is NOAA's estimate at the time, in nominal dollars, and is often rounded; it is not insurance claims data. A storm that crossed two NOAA zones in this county is recorded, and counted, once per zone.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Los Angeles County each year. The busiest year was 2024, with 51 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 20 | 1 | $1.5M |
| 1997 | 35 | 1 | $0 |
| 1998 | 50 | 5 | $0 |
| 1999 | 23 | 2 | $0 |
| 2000 | 26 | 1 | $0 |
| 2001 | 14 | 1 | $0 |
| 2002 | 9 | 0 | $28.0M |
| 2003 | 14 | 0 | $3.5M |
| 2004 | 14 | 1 | $0 |
| 2005 | 19 | 1 | $6.0M |
| 2006 | 14 | 0 | $0 |
| 2007 | 48 | 20 | $350K |
| 2008 | 42 | 3 | $7.0M |
| 2009 | 19 | 3 | $0 |
| 2010 | 32 | 0 | $0 |
| 2011 | 29 | 0 | $0 |
| 2012 | 16 | 0 | $0 |
| 2013 | 22 | 0 | $0 |
| 2014 | 31 | 1 | $40.0M |
| 2015 | 28 | 0 | $0 |
| 2016 | 25 | 2 | $0 |
| 2017 | 21 | 0 | $0 |
| 2018 | 13 | 6 | $0 |
| 2019 | 14 | 2 | $0 |
| 2020 | 25 | 0 | $0 |
| 2021 | 25 | 0 | $0 |
| 2022 | 29 | 1 | $0 |
| 2023 | 48 | 0 | $0 |
| 2024 | 51 | 0 | $5K |
| 2025 | 36 | 17 | $3K |
| 2026 | 39 | 0 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- High Surf · Aug 26, 2014$40.0MNOAA name: LOS ANGELES COUNTY COASTS INCLUDING DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES · NOAA record 536430
- Wildfire · Sep 22, 2002$15.3MNOAA name: LOS ANGELES · 14 injuries · NOAA record 5316894
- Wildfire · Sep 1, 2002$12.7MNOAA name: LOS ANGELES · 14 injuries · NOAA record 5316896
- Heavy Rain · Jan 7, 2005$5.0MNOAA name: LOS ANGELES · NOAA record 5438919
- Hail · Nov 12, 2003$3.5MNOAA name: LOS ANGELES · NOAA record 5331118
Deadliest records
- Wildfire · Jan 7, 202517 deathsNOAA name: LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN GABRIEL VALLEY · 9 injuries · NOAA record 1230303
- Excessive Heat · Sep 1, 200710 deathsNOAA name: LOS ANGELES COUNTY VALLEYS · NOAA record 52589
- Excessive Heat · Sep 3, 20078 deathsNOAA name: LOS ANGELES COUNTY COASTS INCLUDING DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES · NOAA record 52597
- Flash Flood · Feb 23, 19983 deathsNOAA name: LOS ANGELES · NOAA record 5630027
- Avalanche · Jan 25, 20083 deathsNOAA name: LOS ANGELES COUNTY MOUNTAINS EXCLUDING THE SANTA MONICA RANGE · 3 injuries · NOAA record 77834
Each line is one NOAA record, linked to its page at NOAA. One large storm can appear more than once if NOAA recorded it in several zones of this county. Dollars are nominal.
Flood insurance claims (NFIP)
The National Flood Insurance Program paid $71.1M on 8,991 claims in Los Angeles County from 1978 to 2024.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 1,399 | $9.2M |
| 1980 | 1,262 | $5.2M |
| 1983 | 1,074 | $8.2M |
| 1995 | 626 | $6.6M |
| 2005 | 413 | $4.3M |
A count of claims, not a rate: NFIP publishes no count of insured homes beside it, and most flood damage is uninsured. Nominal dollars. Records run from 1978 to 2024; claims filed without a county code are not on any county page. Source: FEMA OpenFEMA FIMA NFIP Redacted Claims.
Hazard vulnerability analysis: the probability column for a facility in Los Angeles County
A hazard vulnerability analysis rates each hazard for probability, impact, preparedness and response. Probability is the one column the county’s federal record can fill — NCEI storm events from 1996 to 2026 and FEMA declarations naming the county — and this is what it says for a facility here, on the 0–3 scale of the all-hazards structure surveyors expect. The other six columns are the facility’s own judgment about its building, and Calchis leaves them blank.
| Hazard | Prob. | Basis, from the county record |
|---|---|---|
| Severe Thunderstorm | 3 | 115 NCEI events over 31 years (3.71/yr). 8 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 254 NCEI events over 31 years (8.19/yr). 10 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 71 NCEI events over 31 years (2.29/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 47 NCEI events over 31 years (1.52/yr). 61 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 250 NCEI events over 31 years (8.06/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Earthquake | 3 | 3 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 2 | 4 NCEI events over 31 years (0.13/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 2 | 18 NCEI events over 31 years (0.58/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 2 | 14 NCEI events over 31 years (0.45/yr). 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Landslide | 2 | 26 NCEI events over 31 years (0.84/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Drought | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Tidal Wave / Tsunami | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Volcano | 1 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Dam Inundation | 1 | No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
A dash means the record does not speak to that hazard; it is not a zero. Whether a finished document satisfies the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule is the facility’s finding and its surveyor’s. Complete the HVA for a facility in Los Angeles County — the technological, human and hazardous-materials rows, the six facility columns, the approval and the printed document — or read the sample analysis on that page first.
How this page was made
- Every figure is counted from public federal records held by Calchis: NOAA NCEI Storm Events, FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations, and FEMA NFIP claims. Nothing is modeled or estimated.
- NOAA files some events by county and others by forecast zone, and names both. Records are counted as Los Angeles County when their NOAA name is this county's name, alone or with a word like “Coastal” or “Inland” in front. The county codes NOAA also publishes have not been loaded for California yet; when they are, this page will count by code instead, and some counties' records will grow. NOAA names counted here: LOS ANGELES, LOS ANGELES COUNTY BEACHES, LOS ANGELES COUNTY COASTS INCLUDING DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MOUNTAINS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY MOUNTAINS EXCLUDING THE SANTA MONICA RANGE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SAN GABRIEL VALLEY, LOS ANGELES COUNTY VALLEYS. Zones named for something else, such as a mountain range or two counties at once, are left out: 47% of California's NOAA records.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
Related
Responsible for Los Angeles County?
This page is the record of what has happened. Calchis also watches live NWS, USGS and NHC feeds against the places you name and alerts you when an event approaches them.
Free includes Live map + 3 triggers + 10 bond positions. Analyst is $149/mo for 1,000-location portfolios, ep curves, predictions, parametric triggers.
Recorded history from federal public records. Not a hazard score, a risk score, or a forecast, and not a substitute for professional actuarial or emergency-management assessment. Decision-support intelligence — not a primary alerting or dispatch system. Verify against official sources.