Natural hazards · Bowles

Bowles, CA natural hazards

Most of the natural-hazard damage FEMA expects in Bowles comes from drought, and overall the risk is moderate for a U.S. community.

FEMA National Risk Index, December 2025 · OpenFEMA claims, aid & declarations

Expected damage

How exposed is Bowles?

Moderate

vs. U.S. communities

FEMA expects yearly storm and flood damage to homes and buildings in Bowles to be higher than in 49% of U.S. communities, mostly from drought and earthquakes.

Drought58%Earthquakes24%Inland flooding15%Everything else3%

By hazard

What Bowles faces

Each hazard’s share of the damage FEMA expects here, and how that compares with the rest of the country.

Drought

58% of expected damage

Recorded about 71 times a year in the area

Earthquakes

24% of expected damage

Well above average · higher than 88% of U.S. places

Inland flooding

15% of expected damage

Below average · higher than 26% of U.S. places

Recorded about 4 times a year in the area

Lower here

TornadoesHailWinter weatherHeat wavesWildfireLandslidesStrong windLightning

Not a risk here

Coastal floodingHurricanesIce stormsCold wavesAvalanchesTsunamisVolcanic activity

Flood risk changes street by street. Check a specific address on FEMA’s flood map, and ask about flood insurance before you buy.

Flood insurance claims

Does Bowles flood?

FEMA's records show no paid flood insurance claims in Bowles.

of homes in flood zones
are insured

of all homes
are insured

No community discount. Bowles isn’t in FEMA’s Community Rating System, which cuts flood insurance up to 45% in towns that do extra flood-proofing.

Insurance rates: Fresno County.

Disasters that hit Bowles

Federal disasters declared here

None of the disasters declared for Fresno County shows FEMA aid or repair money reaching Bowles itself in FEMA’s records.

Brought FEMA money into BowlesDeclared for Fresno County only

Fresno County has had 18 natural disasters declared since 1953, most often floods and severe storms.

About these numbers

How to read this page

An average, not a forecastFEMA’s National Risk Index estimates the damage 18 kinds of natural hazards cause in a typical year, from decades of records and models. A quiet decade can follow a bad year.

Compared by rate“Higher than N%” compares yearly damage as a share of what’s here, so a big city isn’t rated riskier just for having more buildings. Bowles is smaller than a census tract, so it shares the figures of the tract around its center.

Money that reached townFlood claims are matched to Bowles’s own flood-insurance community; household aid to the registrant’s city; repair grants to Bowles. FEMA’s model follows property values, so a place that recently lost many homes can rate lower than it feels.

Sources: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025); OpenFEMA: NFIP redacted claims, multiple-loss properties, community status book and residential penetration rates, housing assistance (owners and renters), public assistance funded projects, hazard mitigation properties and disaster declarations. Census tracts: U.S. Census Bureau.