Weather alerts in Alabama, 2008
2,638 weather alerts in 2008, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state.
Weather alerts by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2008. Tap one for its archive.
- Alerts
- 2,638
- Warnings
- 1,903
- Watches
- 189
- Advisories
- 308
- Busiest month
- August352 alerts
- Busiest day
- December 10, 2008117 alerts
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
63 of 399 tornado warnings covering Alabama in 2008 had a tornado report inside them; 105 of 147 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 20 minutes after it went out.
Alabama, 2008
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 399 | 63 | 84% | 147 | 71% | 20 min |
| Severe thunderstorm warnings | 959 | 296 | 69% | 971 | 53% | 21 min |
| Flash flood warnings | 71 | 18 | 75% | 80 | 65% | 147 min |
Each office's whole area, 2008
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Nashville, TN: tornado warnings | 59 | 18 | 69% | 39 | 92% | 17 min |
| NWS Nashville, TN: severe thunderstorm warnings | 183 | 52 | 72% | 152 | 49% | 11 min |
| NWS Nashville, TN: flash flood warnings | 5 | 1 | 80% | 2 | 50% | 18 min |
| NWS Tallahassee, FL: tornado warnings | 76 | 21 | 72% | 54 | 78% | 19 min |
| NWS Tallahassee, FL: severe thunderstorm warnings | 206 | 77 | 63% | 200 | 55% | 22 min |
| NWS Tallahassee, FL: flash flood warnings | 20 | 4 | 80% | 13 | 77% | 58 min |
| NWS Huntsville, AL: tornado warnings | 49 | 15 | 69% | 35 | 69% | 19 min |
| NWS Huntsville, AL: severe thunderstorm warnings | 242 | 66 | 73% | 292 | 43% | 15 min |
| NWS Huntsville, AL: flash flood warnings | 32 | 11 | 66% | 50 | 78% | 128 min |
| NWS Birmingham, AL: tornado warnings | 202 | 29 | 86% | 87 | 67% | 18 min |
| NWS Birmingham, AL: severe thunderstorm warnings | 494 | 184 | 63% | 585 | 56% | 23 min |
| NWS Birmingham, AL: flash flood warnings | 17 | 5 | 71% | 19 | 26% | 61 min |
| NWS Mobile, AL: tornado warnings | 165 | 10 | 94% | 17 | 82% | 33 min |
| NWS Mobile, AL: severe thunderstorm warnings | 300 | 54 | 82% | 117 | 68% | 19 min |
| NWS Mobile, AL: flash flood warnings | 28 | 3 | 89% | 19 | 74% | 212 min |
An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.
Verified by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow, which matches each storm-based warning with the local storm reports inside its polygon while it was in force, within 15 km of its edge: a tornado warning counts as verified on a tornado report, a severe thunderstorm warning on hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more, or wind damage, a flash flood warning on a flash flood report. The false alarm ratio is the share of warnings with no such report; "inside a warning" is the probability of detection, the share of reports that fell inside one; lead time runs from the warning's issue to each report inside it, counting zero for a report that came first. A warning with no report is not proof nothing happened: reports come from spotters, the public and damage surveys, and are thin where few people live.
The alerts
2,638 alerts are too many to list on one page. Narrow it to a product above, to a month in the chart, or to a county.
By product
Every kind of product issued here, grouped by hazard. Each opens the same place narrowed to that product.
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Tuscaloosa County278
- Jefferson County277
- Walker County262
- Shelby County250
- Fayette County247
- Talladega County247
- Dale County241
- St. Clair County241
- Chilton County240
- Coffee County239
- Henry County236
- Houston County235
- Coosa County234
- Clay County233
- Pickens County229
- Autauga County226
- Calhoun County223
- Hale County222
- Geneva County221
- Blount County221
- Bullock County221
- Montgomery County221
- Bibb County220
- Lamar County220
- Covington County220
- Elmore County219
- Randolph County219
- Tallapoosa County218
- Cleburne County215
- Dallas County215
- Marengo County214
- Escambia County213
- Greene County212
- Perry County212
- Sumter County211
- Macon County210
- Cherokee County208
- Etowah County208
- Winston County208
- Russell County207
27 more counties
- Chambers County206
- Lee County204
- Barbour County203
- Marion County203
- Washington County200
- Lowndes County198
- Pike County197
- Conecuh County197
- Clarke County191
- Baldwin County190
- Choctaw County186
- Crenshaw County183
- Lawrence County181
- Monroe County179
- Madison County177
- Colbert County170
- Cullman County170
- Butler County170
- DeKalb County168
- Lauderdale County166
- Morgan County165
- Limestone County163
- Jackson County162
- Wilcox County161
- Marshall County160
- Mobile County152
- Franklin County146
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20072009
Sources
National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Warning verification from the Mesonet's Cow. Rebuilt daily.