Alert archive / Iowa

Weather alerts in Shelby County, Iowa

3,176 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Shelby County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,176
Warnings
725
Watches
663
Advisories
739
Busiest year
2024190 alerts
Average year
79over 40 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, 69% of tornado reports in Shelby County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 25 minutes before, and 77% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087357%2100%6 min
201120100%0
201410100%0
201510100%0
201720100%0
201810100%0
201920100%0
202140100%0
20223167%0
2023010%
202410460%1369%30 min
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
2008251252%875%18 min
20099544%771%20 min
201013746%580%7 min
2011201525%1182%27 min
20124175%0
20137271%20%
2014301840%16100%23 min
20158450%667%20 min
201611645%5100%6 min
2017141214%888%20 min
201821671%850%18 min
201914843%1771%11 min
2020440%3100%30 min
20217443%3100%39 min
202218856%667%20 min
202322577%2100%35 min
2024331652%15100%32 min
2025181328%3100%11 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
201110100%0
2014110%1100%64 min
201620100%0
2018110%0
201910100%0
202320100%0
20242150%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
Sep 15, 12:54 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX66 min
Sep 14, 7:22 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatOAX38 min
Sep 9, 2:30 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX3 hr
Sep 6, 4:33 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX2 hr
Sep 6, 3:51 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX39 min
Aug 14, 4:41 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningOAX3 hr
Aug 13, 4:27 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX48 min
Jul 27, 7:05 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningOAX15 hr
Jul 24, 11:26 PM CDTExtreme Heat WarningOAX71 hr
Jul 8, 9:45 PM CDTTornado WarningOAX25 min
Jul 8, 9:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX49 min
Jul 8, 8:32 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX26 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.