Alert archive / Kansas / Sedgwick County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Sedgwick County, Kansas

1,158 severe thunderstorm warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of severe thunderstorm warnings reaches back to 1986.

Sedgwick County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
1,158
Busiest year
201970 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
28over 41 years on file

Over time

By year

Before October 2007 these were issued for whole counties, and a storm crossing three counties was often three warnings; since then one polygon follows the storm. The count changed with the practice, not only with the weather.

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

From 2008 to 2025, 86% of hail, wind and damage reports in Sedgwick County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 27 minutes before, and 28% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008665123%13389%27 min
2009473330%6977%28 min
2010322328%6785%34 min
2011604525%12887%27 min
2012281836%9478%30 min
2013302227%5584%27 min
2014241729%4269%18 min
201518856%3382%32 min
2016644825%14891%28 min
2017282125%4098%28 min
2018171229%3485%27 min
2019704634%10887%27 min
202016756%2282%19 min
2021191332%2365%14 min
2022322231%6585%23 min
2023242017%3887%21 min
2024282318%7389%27 min
2025574521%11590%26 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.

The latest severe thunderstorm warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 20, 1:15 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT30 min
Sep 20, 12:59 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT46 min
Sep 15, 4:13 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT32 min
Sep 15, 4:02 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT28 min
Sep 15, 3:50 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatICT25 min
Sep 15, 2:59 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT31 min
Sep 15, 2:35 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT25 min
Sep 9, 2:38 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT21 min
Aug 26, 6:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT25 min
Aug 7, 5:37 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT25 min
Jul 9, 7:28 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT40 min
Jul 4, 9:16 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningICT44 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.