Sonoma County has been widely recognized as a good place to sell umbrellas. Numerous winter storms have brought heavy winds and rain, causing flooding in the lower Russian River, Petaluma River and local streams and creeks. Sonoma County has activated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the January and March 1995 Winter Storms, large storms in December 1995 and February 1996, the Cavedale and Porter Creek Wildfires in August 1996, the New Year's Flood of 1997, the 1998 El Nino Flood and Rio Nido Slide incidents, as well as the 2004 Geysers Fire.
Since 1991, Sonoma County/Op Area has had:
| Year | Event Name | Dates | EOC Activated |
Local Emergency |
Gubernatorial Declaration |
Presidential Declaration |
| 1991 | Freeze of ’91 | December 90 - February 91 | X | X | X | |
| 1993 | Flood of ’93 | January 20-25 | X | X | X | X |
| 1994 | Fishing Emergency | May – September | X | X | X | |
| 1995 | Flood of '95, Part I | January 8-31 | X | X | X | X |
| 1995 | Flood of '95, Part II | March 7-15 | X | X | X | X |
| 1995 | December Winter Storm | December 11-12 | X | X | ||
| 1996 | February Winter Storm | February 4-5 | X | |||
| 1996 | Cavedale Fire | July 31-August 20 | X | X | ||
| 1996 | Jenner Sandbarrier | July 31 - August 20 | X | |||
| 1996 | Porter Creek Fire | October 27 - 28 | X | |||
| 1997 | New Year's Flood | December 30 - January 4 | X | X | X | X |
| 1997 | Superbowl Flood | January 25 | X | |||
| 1998 | Flood of '98 (Rio Nido) | February 2, 1998 - January 4, 2000 | X | X | X | X |
| 1999 | February Winter Storm | February 8-10 | X | X | ||
| 2002 | December Winter Storms | December | X | |||
| 2004 | Geysers Fire | September 3 - 7 | X | X | ||
| 2006 | New Year's Flood | December 30 2005 - January 4 2006 | X | X | X | X |
| 2006 | Spring Flooding | March 29 - April 16 | X | X | X | |
| 2007 | SF Bay Oil Spill | November 7 | X | X | ||
| 2009 | H1N1 Event | April - May | X | |||
| 2011 | Great Tohoku Tsunami | March 11 | X |
