Alert archive / Kentucky

Weather alerts in Harlan County, Kentucky

3,029 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Harlan County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,029
Warnings
780
Watches
526
Advisories
981
Busiest year
2025179 alerts
Average year
78over 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, of tornado reports in Harlan County fell inside a tornado warning, and 97% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200820100%0
200930100%0
201140100%0
2012100100%0
20142150%0
202010100%0
202230100%0
202330100%0
202440100%0
202540100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008131023%1450%22 min
2009201430%1450%22 min
201013746%3100%24 min
2011261735%1937%23 min
2012211338%1540%20 min
2013660%729%32 min
2014161225%2080%26 min
201514137%4100%28 min
20165340%1070%17 min
20177443%333%5 min
201811918%1292%15 min
20195260%1100%23 min
20205260%250%20 min
202111736%560%7 min
2022171041%978%20 min
2023161225%1688%19 min
202412742%729%31 min
2025231726%1164%14 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20097357%250%26 min
20107357%10%
20116267%2100%8 min
20127357%0
20132150%1100%36 min
20142150%0
20158713%0
2016220%4100%169 min
20173167%1100%100 min
20185420%6100%73 min
2019010%
20203167%2100%14 min
2021330%4100%135 min
20223167%1100%68 min
2024110%0
20255340%3100%57 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 23, 10:01 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL3 hr
Sep 23, 9:25 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL4 hr
Sep 23, 8:22 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL4 hr
Sep 23, 4:12 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL4 hr
Sep 23, 3:30 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL6 hr
Sep 21, 11:59 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL19 min
Sep 21, 11:56 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL34 min
Sep 21, 11:49 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningJKL3 hr
Sep 21, 11:47 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL13 min
Sep 5, 10:24 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL28 min
Aug 22, 9:56 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL25 min
Aug 22, 8:25 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningJKL35 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.