Alert archive / Iowa / Butler County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Butler County, Iowa

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

Butler County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
324
Busiest year
201728 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
9over 37 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, 76% of hail, wind and damage reports in Butler County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 23 minutes before, and 40% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200819763%1354%22 min
2009880%7100%24 min
2010171135%4100%32 min
20119633%743%14 min
20128713%757%13 min
2013191047%450%19 min
20149633%20100%25 min
20153233%6100%22 min
20168363%944%19 min
2017282125%2685%25 min
201812467%633%35 min
201913654%3100%34 min
202011736%580%16 min
20219456%367%21 min
20229456%1100%30 min
202312742%250%24 min
202410730%786%25 min
2025201430%989%18 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 4, 3:21 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX39 min
Aug 7, 2:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX38 min
Jul 26, 4:59 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX46 min
Jul 20, 3:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX66 min
Jul 20, 3:23 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX67 min
Jul 20, 2:51 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX39 min
Jun 11, 8:38 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX67 min
Jun 10, 7:13 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX51 min
May 17, 10:11 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX37 min
May 15, 10:14 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX46 min
May 15, 10:07 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX22 min
Apr 17, 2:35 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX40 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.