Alert archive / Colorado / Adams County

Tornado Warnings in Adams County, Colorado

263 tornado warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.

Adams County and its neighbors

Each county as a circle sized by its count since 1986. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
263
Busiest year
199622 tornado warnings
Average year
7over 40 years on file

Over time

By year

Before October 2007 these were issued for whole counties, and a storm crossing three counties was often three warnings; since then one polygon follows the storm. The count changed with the practice, not only with the weather.

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

From 2008 to 2025, 50% of tornado reports in Adams County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 12 minutes before, and 74% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20089367%2100%22 min
200915193%425%7 min
201015473%771%12 min
20114175%1100%4 min
20123167%250%4 min
20134175%0
201416756%1338%23 min
201510190%250%5 min
201630100%20%
201710100%0
20184175%1100%11 min
20194325%580%7 min
20215260%475%19 min
202230100%10%
20236267%425%3 min
202430100%60%
20255260%4100%6 min
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Years from 2008, the first full year of storm-based warnings. The year still running is on its own page.

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 latest tornado warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Jun 8, 4:52 PM MDTTornado WarningBOU38 min
Jun 1, 3:24 PM MDTTornado WarningBOU39 min
Jun 1, 3:02 PM MDTTornado WarningBOU43 min
Jun 1, 2:29 PM MDTTornado WarningBOU46 min

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordForecastThe radar archive

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.