Alert archive / Montana

Weather alerts in Dawson County, Montana

3,064 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Dawson County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,064
Warnings
1,174
Watches
562
Advisories
601
Busiest year
2010186 alerts
Average year
79over 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, 25% of tornado reports in Dawson County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 29 minutes before, and 79% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20095180%250%29 min
201020100%10%
2011110%0
201340100%0
2014110%0
2018010%
201910100%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
2008291259%6100%27 min
2009332039%1872%33 min
2010392341%1060%14 min
2011231535%1275%15 min
2012181139%850%28 min
2013281932%2383%27 min
2014231439%1070%21 min
201522959%1457%26 min
2016301550%2576%25 min
201711555%475%16 min
2018252020%1883%30 min
2019211433%1267%32 min
2020161225%450%11 min
2021181139%2861%29 min
2022291355%367%39 min
202319858%1173%27 min
2024241538%2673%35 min
2025311165%1275%39 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
200920100%0
201010100%0
20117271%0
20132150%1100%10 min
201410100%10%
2018330%2100%51 min
202310100%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 14, 9:31 AM MDTHigh Wind WarningGGW12 hr
Sep 9, 12:56 PM MDTRed Flag WarningGGW31 hr
Sep 7, 3:44 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGW50 min
Sep 4, 12:36 AM MDTRed Flag WarningGGW20 hr
Sep 2, 11:41 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGW64 min
Sep 2, 10:42 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGW63 min
Aug 30, 12:40 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGW65 min
Aug 12, 6:19 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGGW56 min
Aug 7, 12:40 PM MDTRed Flag WarningGGW31 hr
Aug 5, 9:24 AM MDTRed Flag WarningGGW34 hr
Jul 31, 11:34 AM MDTRed Flag WarningGGW57 hr
Jul 31, 11:20 AM MDTExtreme Heat WarningGGW49 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.