Nevada 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 Heavy Snow, with 668 records.
- The costliest single record is Wildfire in 2007: $500.0M in property damage, in the dollars of that year.
- The deadliest record is Avalanche in 2026, with 9 deaths.
- FEMA has declared 23 disasters that named this county, most often for fire.
- The worst year for flood insurance claims was 2017, with 15 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 23 disasters that named Nevada County between 1964 and 2023.
| Incident type | Disasters | Most recent |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | 7 | 2021 |
| Severe Storm | 7 | 2023 |
| Flood | 5 | 2023 |
| Biological | 2 | 2020 |
| Drought | 1 | 1977 |
| Hurricane | 1 | 2005 |
Most recent declarations
- 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
- DR-4683 2022 · Flood · Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, Landslides, And Mudslides
- DR-4610 2021 · Fire · Wildfires
- FM-5332 2020 · Fire · Jones Fire
- DR-4558 2020 · Fire · Wildfires
- DR-4482 2020 · Biological · Covid-19 Pandemic
- EM-3428 2020 · Biological · Covid-19
- FM-5217 2017 · Fire · Lobo Fire
- DR-4344 2017 · Fire · Wildfires
Not counted above: 34 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Snow | 668 | 1 | 4 | $550K |
| High Wind | 214 | 1 | 0 | $1.9M |
| Winter Weather | 95 | 3 | 0 | $10K |
| Heavy Rain | 63 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Winter Storm | 35 | 2 | 2 | $475K |
| Flood | 26 | 0 | 1 | $4.7M |
| Avalanche | 17 | 17 | 9 | $0 |
| Hail | 15 | 0 | 0 | $1K |
| Strong Wind | 12 | 1 | 0 | $401K |
| Debris Flow | 11 | 0 | 1 | $2.1M |
| Dense Fog | 5 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Blizzard | 4 | 1 | 0 | $30K |
| Flash Flood | 4 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Dense Smoke | 3 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Lightning | 3 | 1 | 0 | $15K |
| Thunderstorm Wind | 2 | 0 | 0 | $10K |
| Wildfire | 2 | 0 | 3 | $500.0M |
| Cold/Wind Chill | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Dust Devil | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Lake-Effect Snow | 1 | 0 | 0 | $0 |
| Tornado | 1 | 0 | 0 | $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. A storm filed against a forecast zone is counted in every county that zone covers, with the whole storm's damage; do not add these figures across counties.
Year by year
NOAA storm event records in Nevada County each year. The busiest year was 2023, with 79 records.
Show the numbers for every year
| Year | Records | Deaths | Property damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 10 | 2 | $125K |
| 1997 | 27 | 0 | $40K |
| 1998 | 47 | 0 | $1K |
| 1999 | 54 | 0 | $45K |
| 2000 | 55 | 0 | $50K |
| 2001 | 76 | 0 | $0 |
| 2002 | 56 | 0 | $2.0M |
| 2003 | 35 | 0 | $0 |
| 2004 | 19 | 0 | $0 |
| 2005 | 22 | 0 | $1.0M |
| 2006 | 52 | 0 | $65K |
| 2007 | 74 | 0 | $500.0M |
| 2008 | 26 | 4 | $110K |
| 2009 | 18 | 1 | $66K |
| 2010 | 16 | 0 | $560K |
| 2011 | 11 | 0 | $50K |
| 2012 | 18 | 3 | $20K |
| 2013 | 6 | 0 | $60K |
| 2014 | 6 | 1 | $200K |
| 2015 | 11 | 0 | $0 |
| 2016 | 22 | 3 | $67K |
| 2017 | 29 | 1 | $5.7M |
| 2018 | 72 | 1 | $100K |
| 2019 | 65 | 0 | $5K |
| 2020 | 50 | 1 | $0 |
| 2021 | 37 | 0 | $0 |
| 2022 | 52 | 0 | $0 |
| 2023 | 79 | 0 | $11K |
| 2024 | 72 | 0 | $0 |
| 2025 | 53 | 0 | $0 |
| 2026 | 13 | 10 | $0 |
Years with no record are left out of the table, not shown as zero.
Notable events
Costliest records
- Wildfire · Jun 24, 2007$500.0MNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 3 injuries · NOAA record 38182
- Flood · Feb 8, 2017$3.6MNOAA name: Nevada County · NOAA record 682216
- Debris Flow · Jan 10, 2017$1.1MNOAA name: Nevada County · NOAA record 677354
- Flood · Dec 31, 2005$1.0MNOAA name: Nevada County · NOAA record 5482283
- Heavy Snow · Apr 15, 2002$500KNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · 4 injuries · NOAA record 5289622
Deadliest records
- Avalanche · Feb 15, 20269 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 1316161
- Winter Storm · Dec 20, 19962 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $75K damage · NOAA record 5580652
- Winter Weather · Oct 10, 20082 deathsNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · $10K damage · NOAA record 134702
- Winter Weather · Oct 3, 20081 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 135137
- Avalanche · Dec 25, 20081 deathNOAA name: NWS forecast zone · NOAA record 146289
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 $1.2M on 69 claims in Nevada County from 1982 to 2023.
| Year | Claims | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 15 | $442K |
| 1997 | 13 | $264K |
| 2005 | 9 | $104K |
| 1995 | 6 | $0 |
| 2002 | 3 | $16K |
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 Nevada 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 | 20 NCEI events over 31 years (0.65/yr). 7 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Flood, External | 3 | 93 NCEI events over 31 years (3.00/yr). 5 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Snow Fall / Blizzard / Ice Storm | 3 | 803 NCEI events over 31 years (25.90/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Wild Fire | 3 | 2 NCEI events over 31 years (0.06/yr). 7 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| High Wind (non-convective) | 3 | 226 NCEI events over 31 years (7.29/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Hurricane / Tropical Storm | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Drought | 2 | No events of this kind on the county's NCEI record over 31 years. 1 federal disaster declaration naming the county. |
| Landslide | 2 | 28 NCEI events over 31 years (0.90/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Epidemic | 2 | 2 federal disaster declarations naming the county. |
| Tornado | 1 | 1 NCEI event over 31 years (0.03/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Temperature Extremes | 1 | 1 NCEI event over 31 years (0.03/yr). No federal disaster declaration of this kind has named the county. |
| Earthquake | 1 | 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 Nevada 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 against a county and others against an NWS forecast zone, and publishes a code for both. Records are counted as Nevada County by that code — county records by the county's own FIPS code, zone records through the National Weather Service's published list of which counties each zone covers. No name matching is involved. Of 1,183 records, 121 were filed against this county and 1,062 against a forecast zone covering it. A zone storm is counted in every county its zone covers, and its damage figure is the whole storm's, not this county's share — NOAA does not publish that split. So these figures describe this county; they must not be added up across counties. Left out: 29% of California's NOAA records, which are marine zones or zones NWS does not map to a county.
- Counts last rebuilt from the source records on Sep 15, 2026.
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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.