San Bernardino County, California: Natural Disaster Risk and History
San Bernardino County, California has a Very High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 99.8 out of 100, higher than about 99% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and inland (river and flash) flooding scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.1 billion a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 59 federal disaster declarations that included San Bernardino County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5537-CA (Bridge Fire, declared 11 September 2024). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 32 tornadoes touching San Bernardino County from 1950 to 2025.
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Population 2,179,979 Buildings worth $424 billion Area 20,308 sq mi Risk rank in California 5 of 58 FIPS 06071
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire | Very High | 99.9 | $146 million | about once every 105 years | — |
| Landslide | Very High | 99.9 | $18 million | about 28 a year | — |
| Inland flooding | Very High | 99.8 | $960 million | about 13 a year | 363 |
| Earthquake | Very High | 99.8 | $922 million | about once every 8.9 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively High | 98.4 | $18 million | about 12 a year | 78 |
| Strong wind | Relatively High | 97.0 | $4.0 million | about once every 5.5 years | 7 |
| Lightning | Relatively High | 95.2 | $2.0 million | about 17 a year | 518,298 strikes |
| Hail | Relatively Moderate | 90.9 | $1.9 million | about once every 14 years | 2.8 |
| Tornado | Relatively Moderate | 78.8 | $3.8 million | about once every 1.3 years | 22 |
| Avalanche | Relatively Low | 78.5 | $143,645 | about once every 15 years | 2 |
| Winter weather | Relatively Low | 48.4 | $62,486 | about 2.1 a year | 40 |
| Drought | Relatively Low | 33.5 | $36,916 | about 78 a year | 4,242 |
| Volcanic activity | Very Low | 31.6 | $3 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 3 |
| Cold wave | Relatively Low | 28.3 | $391,670 | about once every 79 years | 0.2 |
| Hurricane | No Rating | 0.0 | — | about once every 763 years | 3 |
| Coastal flooding | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Ice storm | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Tsunami | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
Score: FEMA's percentile among US counties that face the hazard (higher = more risk). Expected loss: FEMA's modelled average yearly loss to buildings, people (as a statistical value) and crops. How often: FEMA's annualised frequency of the hazard in the county; for some hazards it counts event-days, so it is a rough guide, not a forecast. "Not Applicable" means FEMA does not model that hazard here.
Federal disaster declarations 59
Most common: Fire 33, Flood 13, Severe Storm 7, Earthquake 2.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 3 | Flood ×3 |
| 1970s | 3 | Flood ×2, Fire |
| 1980s | 5 | Flood ×3, Coastal Storm, Fire |
| 1990s | 10 | Fire ×3, Severe Storm ×3, Flood ×2, Earthquake, Freezing |
| 2000s | 21 | Fire ×17, Severe Storm ×2, Freezing, Hurricane |
| 2010s | 8 | Fire ×5, Earthquake, Flood, Severe Storm |
| 2020s | 9 | Fire ×6, Flood ×2, Severe Storm |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included San Bernardino County
- Hurricane Katrina Evacuation (2005, EM-3248-CA): 58 California counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storms, Flooding Landslides, Mud Flow (1995, DR-1046-CA): 57 California counties designated.
- Severe Winter Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides (2023, DR-4699-CA): 46 California counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005), Tropical Storm Kathleen (1976).
Not counted above: 2 COVID-19 ("Biological") declarations — in 2020 every US county was included. California also had 30 statewide declarations with no county list.
Tornado record since 1950 32
| Tornadoes touching the county | 32 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×2 |
| Peak month | August (8) |
| Deadliest | 7 Sep 1982, F2, 0.5 mi path, 0 killed, 2 injured |
| Longest path | 18 May 1997, F1, 9 mi path |
| Most recent | 16 Apr 2019, EF0, 1.6 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 3 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 23 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 1 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
Deaths and injuries are for each tornado's whole path, which can run beyond this county. F-scale ratings before February 2007, Enhanced Fujita (EF) after.
How San Bernardino County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Bernardino County (this page) | — | Very High | 99.8 | Wildfire |
| Riverside County | 124 km | Very High | 99.9 | Wildfire |
| Clark County, NV | 186 km | Very High | 99.6 | Heat wave |
| Orange County | 193 km | Very High | 99.8 | Earthquake |
| Los Angeles County | 196 km | Very High | 100.0 | Earthquake |
| San Diego County | 208 km | Very High | 99.7 | Wildfire |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in California, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 33.2 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively Low 20.1 |
| Community risk factor | 1.01 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $2.1 billion |
FEMA scales expected losses up where social vulnerability is high (people who may find it harder to prepare, evacuate or recover) and down where community resilience is high. A factor above 1 raises the risk score. For social vulnerability a high rating is worse; for resilience a high rating is better.
Prepare for San Bernardino County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for California · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Wildfire: US wildfires now · Wildfire smoke: what protects you
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Inland flooding: Flood safety: why shallow water kills · Floods recorded
- Your property's flood zone: FEMA Flood Map Service Center ↗ — this page cannot tell you that.
- Official preparedness guidance: Ready.gov ↗ and your county emergency management office.
What this page shows, and what it misses
FEMA's National Risk Index rates a whole county against every other US county; it is a planning-level estimate for nationwide comparison, not a flood-zone map and not a substitute for a local risk assessment or the risk to one home. Declarations are presidential disaster, emergency and fire management declarations that named this county; state declarations and SBA or USDA designations are not included. Tornadoes are counted when the county is one of up to four listed on the track; 670 tornadoes that crossed a state line carry no county list in NOAA's file and are left out.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Risk Index Dataset: National Risk Index Counties - v1.20.0 (December 2025). Retrieved from https://services.arcgis.com/XG15cJAlne2vxtgt/ArcGIS/rest/services/National_Risk_Index_Counties/FeatureServer/0/query on November 2, 2026, 1:20 PM EST. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index dataset API or downloadable datasets 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).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries - v2, retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/api/open/v2/DisasterDeclarationsSummaries on November 2, 2026, 1:21 PM EST. 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).
Tornado records: NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, Severe Weather Database, tornadoes 1950–2025 (https://www.spc.noaa.gov/wcm/data/1950-2025_actual_tornadoes.csv, downloaded 2 November 2026). Public domain; not endorsed by NOAA. Compiled by Global Incident Tracker.
Questions about San Bernardino County
What natural disasters is San Bernardino County, California most at risk from?
San Bernardino County, California has a Very High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 99.8 out of 100, higher than about 99% of US counties, with wildfires, landslides and inland (river and flash) flooding scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $2.1 billion a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has San Bernardino County had?
OpenFEMA lists 59 federal disaster declarations that included San Bernardino County since 1965, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is FM-5537-CA (Bridge Fire, declared 11 September 2024). Another 30 California declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit San Bernardino County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 32 tornadoes touching San Bernardino County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 7 Sep 1982, F2, 0.5 mi path, 0 killed, 2 injured (deaths and injuries are for the whole path).
Is the National Risk Index a flood zone map?
No. The National Risk Index is a planning-level estimate for a whole county, built for nationwide comparison. It does not tell you the flood zone or the risk of a single property: for that, look up the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov) and ask your local floodplain manager.