Alert archive / Iowa

Weather alerts in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa

3,064 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Cerro Gordo County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,064
Warnings
732
Watches
617
Advisories
876
Busiest year
2008179 alerts
Average year
79over 39 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, 89% of tornado reports in Cerro Gordo County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 19 minutes before, and 71% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20085180%1100%29 min
20102150%0
201110100%0
20132150%0
20144325%367%16 min
201610100%0
20184175%1100%16 min
201910100%0
20215260%4100%19 min
202240100%0
202520100%0
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200816850%1127%13 min
20098625%667%20 min
2010141029%1267%28 min
20119456%944%13 min
201211918%1479%24 min
2013181233%1275%33 min
201411373%450%26 min
20156267%520%6 min
201612467%1145%15 min
2017231535%20100%18 min
2018201430%2983%31 min
20199278%2100%19 min
202014843%1164%24 min
20219544%978%25 min
2022151033%850%27 min
20239456%333%19 min
20247443%863%14 min
2025251540%1080%19 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20086350%475%253 min
20102150%0
201110100%0
20133233%1100%57 min
20144325%10%
2015110%1100%23 min
20168713%786%117 min
2017110%10%
2018220%3100%83 min
2021110%0
202210100%0
202420100%0
202510100%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
Aug 7, 1:37 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX53 min
Aug 7, 1:25 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX50 min
Aug 7, 1:07 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX23 min
Jul 25, 2:53 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningDMX67 hr
Jul 20, 3:23 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX67 min
Jul 20, 2:51 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX39 min
Jul 20, 2:46 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX44 min
Jul 10, 4:34 PM CDTTornado WarningDMX26 min
Jul 8, 7:29 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningDMX6 hr
Jul 2, 11:44 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX61 min
Jun 28, 8:36 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX39 min
Jun 28, 7:57 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX48 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.