Alert archive / Colorado

Weather alerts in Arapahoe County, Colorado

4,256 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Arapahoe County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
4,256
Warnings
1,855
Watches
690
Advisories
653
Busiest year
2026276 alerts
Average year
104over 41 years on file

Over time

By year

Before late 2005 the archive holds only tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings, and from 1997 SPC's watches, so the jump that year is the archive widening, not the weather.

By month of the year

Warning verification

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

From 2008 to 2025, 41% of tornado reports in Arapahoe County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 11 minutes before, and 76% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084250%450%5 min
200911191%333%9 min
201011373%3100%12 min
20125180%250%15 min
201340100%0
201416569%633%12 min
201512283%0
201620100%0
201720100%20%
20185180%10%
201920100%0
2021220%1100%3 min
202220100%10%
20237271%10%
2024010%
20254250%743%16 min
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200822864%4100%14 min
2009412051%2889%16 min
2010181139%2317%20 min
2011341556%1457%24 min
2012231152%1974%15 min
201325772%1331%19 min
2014492059%4070%18 min
2015291162%2374%14 min
2016281354%9100%17 min
20179456%729%8 min
2018491276%2785%25 min
2019291452%2374%24 min
2020231248%2176%40 min
202113838%1675%20 min
202215753%1486%12 min
2023572556%5048%18 min
2024431858%2685%20 min
202530873%1369%10 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008110%2100%40 min
20092150%1100%16 min
201010100%0
20115260%0
20123167%1100%102 min
201311282%4100%72 min
20144175%0
20156350%1100%17 min
2016110%0
2018110%6100%27 min
20193167%0
202020100%0
202120100%0
2022220%5100%27 min
2023110%1100%154 min
20245260%0
202530100%0

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.

By product

Every kind of product issued here, grouped by hazard. Each opens the same place narrowed to that product.

The latest warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 22, 7:33 PM MDTFlash Flood WarningBOU79 min
Sep 19, 5:55 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU29 min
Sep 19, 2:08 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU52 min
Sep 19, 1:46 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU29 min
Sep 19, 1:23 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU52 min
Sep 18, 4:47 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU28 min
Aug 26, 7:29 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU14 min
Aug 26, 7:08 PM MDTFlash Flood WarningBOU3 hr
Aug 26, 6:37 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU38 min
Aug 26, 6:25 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU50 min
Aug 26, 6:08 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU31 min
Aug 26, 6:01 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU26 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.