Sonoma County, California: Natural Disaster Risk and History
Sonoma County, California has a Relatively High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 99.1 out of 100, higher than about 99% of US counties, with landslides, earthquakes and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $605 million a year in expected losses.
OpenFEMA lists 34 federal disaster declarations that included Sonoma County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4699-CA (Severe Winter Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, declared 3 April 2023). NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Sonoma County from 1950 to 2025.
Live weather alerts for California All official warnings Latest FEMA declarations
Population 488,330 Buildings worth $117 billion Area 1,786 sq mi Risk rank in California 13 of 58 FIPS 06097
All 18 hazards, highest risk first
FEMA National Risk Index| Hazard | Risk rating | Score | Expected loss a year | How often | Events in record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landslide | Relatively High | 99.8 | $5.0 million | about 67 a year | — |
| Earthquake | Relatively High | 99.5 | $284 million | about once every 8.5 years | — |
| Drought | Relatively High | 99.3 | $14 million | about 34 a year | 1,610 |
| Inland flooding | Relatively High | 99.2 | $280 million | about 2.5 a year | 71 |
| Wildfire | Relatively High | 98.2 | $17 million | about once every 258 years | — |
| Heat wave | Relatively Moderate | 88.8 | $3.0 million | about 7 a year | 86 |
| Volcanic activity | Relatively Low | 85.0 | $2,854 | rarer than once in 1,000 years | 1 |
| Coastal flooding | Relatively Moderate | 68.6 | $1.1 million | about 3.4 a year | — |
| Lightning | Relatively Moderate | 58.7 | $341,477 | about 3.7 a year | 29,069 strikes |
| Tsunami | Very Low | 26.2 | $243,872 | about once every 2.9 years | 73 |
| Hail | Very Low | 16.1 | $59,923 | about once every 57 years | 0.7 |
| Tornado | Very Low | 15.4 | $162,646 | about once every 12 years | 9 |
| Strong wind | Very Low | 13.6 | $118,873 | about once every 57 years | 1 |
| Avalanche | Very Low | 10.8 | $10 | about once every 100 years | 0 |
| Winter weather | Very Low | 8.1 | $6,414 | about once every 1.4 years | 13 |
| Cold wave | No Rating | 0.0 | — | — | 0 |
| Hurricane | Not Applicable | — | — | — | — |
| Ice storm | 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 34
Most common: Fire 11, Severe Storm 9, Flood 9, Hurricane 1.
| Decade | Declarations | Incident types |
|---|---|---|
| 1960s | 2 | Flood ×2 |
| 1970s | 1 | Drought |
| 1980s | 3 | Flood ×2, Coastal Storm |
| 1990s | 7 | Severe Storm ×4, Fishing Losses, Flood, Freezing |
| 2000s | 4 | Severe Storm ×2, Hurricane, Fire |
| 2010s | 9 | Fire ×6, Severe Storm ×2, Flood |
| 2020s | 8 | Fire ×4, Flood ×3, Severe Storm |
The last 10
Widest declarations that included Sonoma 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 Storms, Flooding, Mud and Landslides (1997, DR-1155-CA): 48 California counties designated.
Named storms in its declarations: Hurricane Katrina (2005).
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 13
| Tornadoes touching the county | 13 |
|---|---|
| Strongest-rated | (E)F2 ×1 |
| Peak month | December (6) |
| Deadliest | 23 Dec 1996, F0, 0.3 mi path, 0 killed, 1 injured |
| Longest path | 1 Jun 1958, F2, 15 mi path |
| Most recent | 18 Mar 2011, EF1, 0.1 mi path |
| Deaths / injuries on those paths | 0 / 1 |
| Rating | (E)F0 | (E)F1 | (E)F2 | (E)F3 | (E)F4 | (E)F5 | Unrated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 2 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Decade | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 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 Sonoma County compares with its 5 nearest counties
| County | Distance | Overall risk | Score | Top hazard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sonoma County (this page) | — | Relatively High | 99.1 | Landslide |
| Napa County | 49 km | Relatively High | 95.3 | Drought |
| Marin County | 53 km | Relatively High | 96.4 | Landslide |
| Lake County | 65 km | Relatively Moderate | 93.0 | Wildfire |
| Yolo County | 87 km | Relatively Moderate | 91.4 | Drought |
| Solano County | 88 km | Relatively High | 97.0 | Drought |
Nearest by distance between county centres. Every county in California, ranked.
Vulnerability and resilience
| Social vulnerability | Relatively Low 29.8 |
|---|---|
| Community resilience | Relatively High 66.2 |
| Community risk factor | 0.97 |
| Expected annual loss, all hazards | $605 million |
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 Sonoma County's main hazards
- Right now: National Weather Service alerts for California · all official warnings on Global Incident Tracker.
- Landslide: Landslides recorded
- Earthquake: Earthquakes today · Earthquake safety guide
- Drought: Drought monitor for California
- 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 Sonoma County
What natural disasters is Sonoma County, California most at risk from?
Sonoma County, California has a Relatively High natural-hazard risk rating in FEMA's National Risk Index (v1.20, December 2025): a score of 99.1 out of 100, higher than about 99% of US counties, with landslides, earthquakes and drought scoring highest of its 18 hazards and $605 million a year in expected losses.
How many federal disaster declarations has Sonoma County had?
OpenFEMA lists 34 federal disaster declarations that included Sonoma County since 1964, not counting 2 for COVID-19; the latest is DR-4699-CA (Severe Winter Storms, Straight-Line Winds, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides, declared 3 April 2023). Another 30 California declarations were made statewide without a county list.
How many tornadoes have hit Sonoma County?
NOAA's Storm Prediction Center recorded 13 tornadoes touching Sonoma County from 1950 to 2025. The deadliest: 23 Dec 1996, F0, 0.3 mi path, 0 killed, 1 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.