Alert archive / Colorado / Denver County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Denver County, Colorado

494 severe thunderstorm warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of severe thunderstorm warnings reaches back to 1986.

Denver County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
494
Busiest year
202331 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
12over 41 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, 80% of hail, wind and damage reports in Denver County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 20 minutes before, and 42% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087186%1100%8 min
2009221150%875%13 min
201014750%367%6 min
2011191426%1593%23 min
201213654%743%16 min
20137271%367%11 min
2014191426%1369%15 min
201514750%1182%14 min
201614843%1771%19 min
20177357%1258%28 min
201815847%771%27 min
2019181233%1560%22 min
20208625%1090%37 min
2021550%989%18 min
20223167%20%
2023312132%3491%15 min
202415847%3497%24 min
202512650%1191%16 min

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 severe thunderstorm warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 19, 5:55 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU29 min
Aug 26, 6:37 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU38 min
Aug 15, 2:34 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU24 min
Aug 15, 1:26 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU34 min
Aug 14, 3:09 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU36 min
Jul 22, 4:13 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU32 min
Jul 9, 3:45 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU45 min
Jun 24, 10:01 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU29 min
Jun 8, 4:19 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU41 min
Jun 8, 3:51 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU39 min
Jun 8, 3:37 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU23 min
Jun 8, 3:14 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm 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.