Alert archive / Iowa

Weather alerts in Pocahontas County, Iowa

2,995 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Pocahontas County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,995
Warnings
709
Watches
605
Advisories
825
Busiest year
2010200 alerts
Average year
73over 41 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, 73% of tornado reports in Pocahontas County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 20 minutes before, and 63% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200860100%0
20108188%10%
20115420%580%34 min
201310100%0
201420100%30%
20152150%1100%8 min
2018010%
20194250%3100%5 min
20215260%0
20223233%4100%19 min
20239456%683%16 min
20243233%2100%32 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
200815660%0
20098450%7100%26 min
201026869%786%25 min
20118713%1155%17 min
201212925%4100%31 min
201311555%714%1 min
2014201145%475%30 min
201510640%771%28 min
201611827%425%30 min
2017141029%667%20 min
2018321650%1493%21 min
20198450%0
202011464%0
2021110%0
202211827%1164%24 min
20237614%1100%22 min
202413654%10%
202516756%2100%15 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008220%1100%190 min
20106433%0
2013110%0
201430100%0
201510100%0
20163233%0
2018220%0
201910100%0
2023110%1100%80 min
202410100%0
2025110%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 9, 4:39 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX20 min
Jul 25, 2:53 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningDMX67 hr
Jul 4, 12:45 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX30 min
Jul 2, 4:03 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX43 min
Jun 28, 7:16 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX44 min
Jun 27, 12:50 PM CDTExtreme Heat WarningDMX6 days
Jun 17, 3:53 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningDMX52 min
May 17, 9:08 PM CDTTornado WarningDMX52 min
May 17, 9:05 PM CDTTornado Warning Tornado observedDMX40 min
May 17, 9:02 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX43 min
May 17, 8:35 PM CDTTornado WarningDMX40 min
May 17, 8:19 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatDMX56 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.