California storm damage and disaster statistics
From 2016 to 2025 the National Weather Service logged 22,551 storm event reports in California, with property damage estimates totalling $22 billion. That is the 4th highest of the 50 states and D.C.
Damaging wind was reported most often (5,786 reports). Wildfire accounted for the most reported damage ($19 billion). FEMA has issued 53 major disaster declarations for California since 2000.
storm event reports, 2016–2025
property damage estimated in those reports
major disaster declarations since 2000
hail reports, 3 of two inches or larger
tornado reports, 1 rated EF2 or stronger
home damage verified by FEMA inspectors since 2002
Reported storm damage in California, year by year
Largest single damage estimate
$17 billion
Wildfire, Northeast Foothills/Sacramento Valley, 2018. Large events are recorded county by county, so one disaster can appear as several entries.
A quiet year on this chart can mean few damaging storms, or storms whose reports carried no damage estimate.
What hits California: reports and damage by type
- Damaging wind 5,786
- Flood 4,323
- Winter weather 4,136
- Wildfire 543
- Hail 318
- Lightning 91
- Tornado 63
- Hurricane and tropical storm 16
- Wildfire $19B
- Flood $1.9B
- Damaging wind $264M
- Hail $20.6M
- Winter weather $17.7M
- Lightning $2.7M
- Tornado $696K
Federal disasters in California
FEMA has recorded 53 major disaster declarations, 13 emergency declarations and 259 fire management declarations for California since 2000.
The most recent major disaster declaration in this data is Wildfires And Straight-Line Winds (fire), declared January 8, 2025.
Some states change their rules on public adjuster fees and contracts after a declared disaster. See what a declaration changes.
- Severe Storm 19
- Fire 15
- Flood 6
- Earthquake 5
- Hurricane 2
- Tropical Storm 1
- Winter Storm 1
Home damage FEMA has verified in California
After a declared disaster, homeowners can register with FEMA and have their home inspected. These are the totals for California since 2003.
homeowners registered, across 21 disasters
damage verified by FEMA inspectors
individual assistance FEMA approved for those owners
homes inspected
inspections that found more than $30,000 of damage
average verified damage per inspected home
FEMA assistance is not insurance and is capped. It measures damage against its own habitability standard, and it counts only owners who registered and were inspected.
Official insurance claim figures for California
What insurers and regulators have reported for California. Unlike the storm estimates above, these are insurance figures.
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41,727
Residential and commercial property claims filed for the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires in Los Angeles County (40,482 partially paid). · Page updated July 6, 2026
Read with care: From insurers including the FAIR Plan and surplus lines writers 'representing most' of the market, not all of it. Excludes 7,133 auto claims shown in the linked PDF. 'Partially paid' means at least one payment made.
California Department of Insurance, Headline figures at top of page (show the source wording)
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$25.2 Billion
Amount insurers have paid on property claims from the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires. · Page updated July 6, 2026
Read with care: Includes advance payments required by California law and debris removal. Payments will keep growing as rebuilding continues.
California Department of Insurance, Headline figures at top of page (show the source wording)
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38,737 claims; $23,409,782,495 paid
Residential personal property claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires and the amount paid to date (Palisades 15,890 claims; Eaton 22,847 claims). · As of July 2026
Read with care: 37,957 of the 38,737 claims had received a payment. The column headings in the PDF are laid out above the table, so check the PDF itself when citing commercial and auto columns.
California Department of Insurance, Table, TOTAL row, residential columns (show the source wording)
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34.04%
Share of homeowners claims closed during the year that were closed without any payment. Statewide industry ratio for CA. · Data year 2025
Read with care: Ratios are built from insurer filings to state regulators. The Florida figure does not include Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The workbook has no national average row. Not every insurer files: small writers are exempt. Closed without payment includes losses below the deductible. The quote is the ratio's definition in the workbook; the number is the cell value for the state.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Sheet 'HO', block 'Ratio 1', row CA, column 'State Ratio' (show the source wording)
The source says“Ratio 1: Claims closed without payment to the total claims closed.”
Read it at the source (opens in a new tab) -
33.96%
Share of paid homeowners claims that were paid more than 60 days after the claim was reported. Statewide industry ratio for CA. · Data year 2025
Read with care: Ratios are built from insurer filings to state regulators. The Florida figure does not include Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The workbook has no national average row. Not every insurer files: small writers are exempt. The quote is the ratio's definition in the workbook; the number is the cell value for the state.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Sheet 'HO', block 'Ratio 3', row CA, column 'State Ratio' (show the source wording)
The source says“Ratio 3: Percentage of claims paid beyond 60 days.”
Read it at the source (opens in a new tab) -
2.23%
Lawsuits opened against homeowners insurers during the year, as a proportion of claims closed without payment. A rough gauge of how litigated a state's homeowners claims are. Statewide industry ratio for CA. · Data year 2025
Read with care: Ratios are built from insurer filings to state regulators. The Florida figure does not include Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The workbook has no national average row. Not every insurer files: small writers are exempt. The quote is the ratio's definition in the workbook; the number is the cell value for the state.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Sheet 'HO', block 'Ratio 7', row CA, column 'State Ratio' (show the source wording)
The source says“Ratio 7: Suits opened during the period to claims closed without payment.”
Read it at the source (opens in a new tab) -
53,563
National Flood Insurance Program claim records for CA in FEMA's public claims dataset. · Losses 1978 to 2026; dataset as served November 10, 2026
Read with care: Counted this session through the OpenFEMA API; the quote is the API's record count for our query. One record per NFIP claim transaction in the redacted dataset, all years since 1978. Federal flood insurance only; not homeowners insurance.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (OpenFEMA), API metadata 'count' for $filter=state eq 'CA' (show the source wording)
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5,592
Complaints about homeowners insurance counted by the California Department of Insurance in its 2025 review of complaints by line of business. Homeowners ranked second after private passenger auto (16,370). · Calendar year 2025
Read with care: From the department's market analysis of complaints against insurers; dwelling fire is listed separately (928). Counts complaints, not confirmed violations.
California Department of Insurance, Page 99 (PDF page 111), table of five lines with most complaints (show the source wording)
How California ranks
| Measure | California | Rank of 51 | In context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storm event reports | 22,551 | 3rd | 57 per 100,000 residents |
| Reported property damage | $22 billion | 4th | $558 per resident |
| Hail reports | 318 | 36th | 3 of two inches or larger |
| Tornado reports | 63 | 32nd | 1 rated EF2 or stronger |
| Major disaster declarations since 2000 | 53 | 2nd | 13 emergency declarations |
| FEMA-verified home damage since 2002 | $2.9 billion | 4th | 318,546 homeowners registered |
If you have a claim in California
California questions
What causes the most storm damage in California?
How often does it hail in California?
How many tornadoes does California get?
How many federal disasters has California had?
How much home damage has FEMA verified in California?
Use this data
You are welcome to quote these figures and reuse the charts in news stories, research and blog posts. Please credit the page with a link.
PublicAdjuster.cc, "California storm damage and disaster statistics," https://publicadjuster.cc/data/california/. Compiled from the NOAA Storm Events Database and FEMA OpenFEMA data, November 10, 2026.
Download all states (CSV) How the figures are built
The underlying records are published by NOAA, FEMA and the U.S. Census Bureau. This product uses the FEMA 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).