Alert archive / Iowa

Weather alerts in Pottawattamie County, Iowa

4,074 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Pottawattamie County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
4,074
Warnings
1,401
Watches
690
Advisories
874
Busiest year
2024257 alerts
Average year
99over 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, 78% of tornado reports in Pottawattamie County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 21 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
200813377%10%
2009110%0
201050100%0
201110100%0
201210100%0
201310100%0
20142150%1100%12 min
201510100%0
20165180%250%25 min
201710100%0
201820100%0
201910100%0
20214250%667%7 min
20225180%10%
2023220%633%7 min
2024191237%21100%25 min
20256350%2100%28 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
2008431956%8100%29 min
2009181139%7100%18 min
2010301840%9100%18 min
2011433323%1493%19 min
2012221436%8100%16 min
2013251156%786%12 min
2014442641%15100%22 min
201512467%0
201622864%2100%4 min
2017312326%1292%17 min
2018402050%1377%24 min
201917759%6100%18 min
2020191616%4100%16 min
2021271930%3482%36 min
2022493039%2186%30 min
2023452642%1090%17 min
2024643939%4193%27 min
2025412637%2348%15 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200860100%0
201020100%0
20116267%2100%111 min
20132150%0
20147443%250%15 min
20153233%2100%86 min
201660100%0
20184325%4100%105 min
20195180%0
2021330%5100%95 min
202210100%0
20234250%250%19 min
202410640%1100%1 min
20253233%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
Oct 1, 2:05 AM CDTAreal Flood WarningOAX11 hr
Oct 1, 1:48 AM CDTAreal Flood WarningOAX11 hr
Sep 30, 11:11 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX3 hr
Sep 30, 10:03 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX4 hr
Sep 15, 12:54 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX66 min
Sep 15, 12:38 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX37 min
Sep 15, 12:22 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX38 min
Sep 15, 12:07 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX23 min
Sep 14, 7:22 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatOAX38 min
Sep 14, 6:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX38 min
Sep 9, 2:30 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX3 hr
Aug 14, 4:41 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX3 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.