Alert archive / Iowa

Weather alerts in Dallas County, Iowa

3,462 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Dallas County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,462
Warnings
1,056
Watches
736
Advisories
717
Busiest year
2008256 alerts
Average year
89over 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, 75% of tornado reports in Dallas County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 5 minutes before, and 50% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084325%7100%7 min
2009110%1100%2 min
2011110%0
2013110%1100%14 min
20145340%250%1 min
20155340%250%0 min
2017220%0
20187271%250%2 min
201920100%0
20202150%250%3 min
20214175%1100%6 min
2022110%0
202411464%250%1 min
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008442739%3882%33 min
2009211529%2796%30 min
2010301647%14100%26 min
2011241442%1776%21 min
2012131115%1580%14 min
2013261446%3284%30 min
2014201050%2075%34 min
2015161413%1191%10 min
2016151127%1392%14 min
2017231630%2282%19 min
2018321359%1369%21 min
2019251348%2070%23 min
202010820%13100%24 min
20218713%1493%35 min
202212833%3100%28 min
2023171135%2100%23 min
2024372435%1486%26 min
2025251636%5100%30 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200811918%11100%93 min
2009110%3100%53 min
201012742%683%113 min
20113167%0
2012110%0
20132150%1100%53 min
20144325%4100%27 min
20155420%1080%84 min
2016220%1100%33 min
20183233%30%
202010100%0
20222150%1100%72 min
2024110%0
20254175%1100%145 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.

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
Sep 15, 2:13 PM CDTRiver Flood WarningDMX4 hr
Sep 15, 3:01 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningDMX4 hr
Sep 14, 8:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX51 min
Sep 9, 2:08 AM CDTRiver Flood WarningDMX17 hr
Sep 9, 1:49 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningDMX5 hr
Sep 8, 6:29 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningDMX6 hr
Aug 13, 6:27 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX48 min
Aug 13, 5:51 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX39 min
Jul 25, 2:53 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningDMX67 hr
Jul 20, 9:47 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX43 min
Jul 20, 9:15 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX17 min
Jul 20, 9:07 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningDMX6 hr

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.