Alert archive / Colorado / Washington County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Washington County, Colorado

1,250 severe thunderstorm warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of severe thunderstorm warnings reaches back to 1986.

Washington County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
1,250
Busiest year
202686 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
30over 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, 61% of hail, wind and damage reports in Washington County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 20 minutes before, and 67% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200828871%1450%20 min
2009431663%2488%14 min
2010261254%1164%36 min
2011361656%2767%22 min
201212467%683%17 min
2013401368%2446%21 min
2014601870%2085%16 min
201525580%367%7 min
201642783%2330%16 min
2017361267%2070%16 min
2018321456%2778%20 min
2019331167%1765%13 min
2020452153%3352%22 min
2021281257%1070%16 min
202226773%1155%18 min
2023591575%3450%17 min
2024692268%3569%29 min
2025651774%3951%21 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 7, 5:39 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU51 min
Aug 26, 7:29 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU14 min
Aug 26, 7:08 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU32 min
Aug 26, 6:25 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU50 min
Aug 26, 5:42 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU44 min
Aug 18, 10:51 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU39 min
Aug 13, 6:28 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU32 min
Aug 13, 5:41 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBOU34 min
Aug 13, 5:14 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU31 min
Aug 12, 5:26 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU49 min
Aug 12, 4:04 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU26 min
Jul 28, 5:20 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBOU40 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.