Alert archive / Maryland

Weather alerts in Washington County, Maryland

3,506 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Washington County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,506
Warnings
1,282
Watches
700
Advisories
678
Busiest year
2011256 alerts
Average year
90over 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, 33% of tornado reports in Washington County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 11 minutes before, and 91% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200910100%0
201010100%0
201150100%20%
201220100%0
201310100%0
201410100%0
201610100%0
201950100%0
20213167%0
202210100%0
20242150%1100%11 min

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008301840%1567%18 min
200913838%4100%21 min
2010191616%560%15 min
2011554616%3080%14 min
2012484115%22100%18 min
2013251444%12100%23 min
2014322522%3077%23 min
2015251348%1191%16 min
2016352529%1385%27 min
2017282318%15100%16 min
2018362142%2268%18 min
2019432542%3586%20 min
2020383118%20100%22 min
2021422931%3882%23 min
2022302420%3080%19 min
202328274%3090%23 min
2024251540%8100%17 min
2025342915%3090%20 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20106517%0
20119544%3100%186 min
20124325%2100%105 min
20146350%1080%72 min
201520100%0
20182150%6100%65 min
201910100%0
20214175%0
20224175%475%26 min
20245420%3100%54 min
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
Sep 3, 8:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX48 min
Sep 3, 8:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX40 min
Sep 3, 9:49 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX41 min
Sep 2, 12:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX45 min
Aug 27, 6:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX40 min
Aug 27, 5:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX50 min
Aug 27, 5:17 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX28 min
Aug 27, 4:45 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX45 min
Aug 22, 8:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX33 min
Aug 10, 3:27 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX18 min
Aug 10, 3:12 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningLWX3 hr
Aug 10, 3:10 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX65 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.