Alert archive / Florida / Polk County / Tornado Warnings
Tornado Warnings in Polk County, Florida, 2024
19 tornado warnings in 2024. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.
Polk County and its neighbors
Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2024. Tap one for its archive.
- Tornado Warnings
- 19
- Busiest month
- October12 tornado warnings
- Busiest day
- October 9, 202412 tornado warnings
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
3 of 19 tornado warnings covering Polk County in 2024 had a tornado report inside them; 1 of 2 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 22 minutes after it went out.
Polk County, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 19 | 3 | 84% | 2 | 50% | 22 min |
Each office's whole area, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Tampa Bay, FL: tornado warnings | 75 | 11 | 85% | 15 | 80% | 17 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
Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Eastern Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 4, 11:15 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 30 min |
| Aug 4, 11:59 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 31 min |
| Aug 4, 1:36 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 24 min |
| Aug 5, 5:13 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 6 min |
| Aug 5, 6:01 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 14 min |
| Aug 5, 8:03 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 27 min |
| Sep 26, 6:47 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 13 min |
| Oct 9, 12:54 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 51 min |
| Oct 9, 12:56 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 34 min |
| Oct 9, 1:19 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 26 min |
| Oct 9, 1:24 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 51 min |
| Oct 9, 1:41 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 28 min |
| Oct 9, 2:03 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 42 min |
| Oct 9, 2:22 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 38 min |
| Oct 9, 2:42 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 22 min |
| Oct 9, 2:47 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 43 min |
| Oct 9, 2:58 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 32 min |
| Oct 9, 3:38 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 14 min |
| Oct 9, 3:39 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | TBW | 21 min |
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordForecastThe radar archive20232025
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.