107
Recorded events
0
Direct deaths
0
Direct injuries
$2.1M
Property damage
Heavy Rain in Fresno County, California: 107 recorded events between 1996 and 2025. The strongest on record measured 1.05. That places the county #24 nationally and #5 statewide for this hazard.
Decade by decade
Heavy Rain in Fresno County, California: events per decade
Reporting practice changed over time — early decades are undercounted, not calmer.
The busiest decade for heavy rain in Fresno County is the 2000s, when 51 of the county's 107 recorded events were logged. Comparing decades is useful for spotting active periods, but the earliest years are thin because systematic reporting for this hazard began later.
Within the Fresno County archive, heavy rain makes up 13.7% of all recorded severe weather across 12 hazard types. Nationally the county sits at #24 for this hazard and #5 within California, putting it in the 99.0 percentile of all U.S. counties.
Seasonality
Events by month
May is the peak month for heavy rain in Fresno County with 26 recorded events, while Aug is the quietest. Seasonality here is a property of the archive as much as the climate: reports cluster where population and spotter networks are densest.
Most recent
Latest recorded events
| Date | Location | Magnitude | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 26, 2025 | MELVIN | 0 | $0 |
| Nov 16, 2025 | MELVIN | 0 | $0 |
| Feb 24, 2023 | MELVIN | 0 | $0 |
| Oct 8, 2021 | MELVIN | 0 | $0 |
| Dec 8, 2019 | CLOVIS | 0 | $0 |
| Dec 1, 2019 | HERNDON | 0 | $50K |
| May 18, 2019 | FRESNO | 0 | $0 |
| Sep 4, 2018 | CEDAR GROVE | 0 | $0 |
| Mar 22, 2018 | MELVIN | 0 | $0 |
| Nov 17, 2017 | CLOVIS | 0 | $0 |
Other hazards here
More from Fresno County
- Flood 312
- Hail 85
- Thunderstorm Wind 78
- Funnel Cloud 47
- Debris Flow 40
From the record
What the reports say
Written by National Weather Service staff at the time of the event · public domain
Moderate to heavy rain caused a multiple vehicle accident on SR 99 just north of Fresno. Some of the individuals who had occupied the cars in the crash were then struck by a drunk driver which killed one of the individuals.
The first substantial autumn rain (and first since 4/12/99) led to transmission line transformer shorts and power loss to 14,000 local utility customers in the Central and Southern San Joaquin Valley. The problems were repaired by the afternoon of the 8th. Rainfall amounts on the San Joaquin Valley floor varied from 0.20 to 0.66 of an inch of rain … and 1.0 to 1.5 inches in the adjacent foothills.
Strong thunderstorms were present around Interior Central California during the late afternoon and early evening of the 23rd. One cell in Western Fresno County led to a report of 1.16" of rain in just over an hour. No reports of flooding were received.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
How many heavy rain events are on record in Fresno County, California?
107 heavy rain events are recorded in Fresno County between 1996 and 2025, causing 0 direct deaths.
What is the strongest heavy rain recorded in Fresno County?
The strongest heavy rain on record in Fresno County measured 1.05.
Where does the heavy rain data for Fresno County come from?
All events come from the NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database, the federal public-domain archive of severe weather reports. Dates are UTC, damage is as reported and not inflation-adjusted, and the most recent entries may still be revised.
Cite this page
“Heavy Rain in Fresno County, California.” Severe Weather History. severeweatherhistory.com/county/california/fresno-county/heavy-rain/ · Data: NOAA/NCEI, FEMA, U.S. Census — public domain.