Alert archive / Missouri / Polk County

Flash Flood Warnings in Polk County, Missouri

228 flash flood warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of flash flood warnings reaches back to 1986.

Polk County and its neighbors

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

Flash Flood Warnings
228
Busiest year
200829 flash flood warnings
Average year
6over 37 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, 90% of flash flood reports in Polk County fell inside a flash flood warning issued on average 171 minutes before, and 21% of the flash flood warnings had no report inside them.

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008292321%3979%225 min
200913931%8100%197 min
2010171512%1292%166 min
20115260%989%126 min
2012110%1100%269 min
201311110%888%137 min
20142150%2100%85 min
201511918%14100%110 min
2016330%5100%99 min
20175340%6100%155 min
20183233%0
201910820%6100%70 min
2020660%989%367 min
20218713%10100%102 min
20224250%250%63 min
20232150%0
202410730%8100%131 min
2025330%667%260 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 flash flood warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Jun 25, 5:31 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Jun 25, 5:07 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Jun 18, 3:25 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Jun 14, 12:35 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Jun 13, 10:17 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF3 hr
Jun 8, 3:15 AM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Jun 7, 8:43 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Apr 15, 7:13 PM CDTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 hr
Mar 6, 11:55 PM CSTFlash Flood WarningSGF6 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.