Alert archive / Montana

Weather alerts in Yellowstone County, Montana

2,752 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Yellowstone County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,752
Warnings
883
Watches
337
Advisories
160
Busiest year
2022157 alerts
Average year
67over 41 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, 67% of tornado reports in Yellowstone County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 21 minutes before, and 64% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20103167%333%1 min
20117443%5100%24 min
201320100%0
201610100%0
2019010%
202510100%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
2008251252%1258%17 min
20098188%333%6 min
2010221532%2990%12 min
2011341750%3765%28 min
20123167%333%22 min
2013351946%4587%24 min
2014151127%2896%29 min
20159456%2789%8 min
201616850%4386%25 min
20179456%875%14 min
2018201240%2365%17 min
2019181139%7478%35 min
20206350%1331%10 min
202111827%1765%24 min
2022191521%4188%34 min
202350100%70%
202412650%2548%23 min
2025342041%4871%24 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
201030100%10%
20114250%1100%7 min
20135260%757%16 min
2015220%1369%20 min
2017110%1100%45 min
2018110%1100%6 min
201920100%0
20222150%3100%83 min
20237186%10%
202510100%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, 2:19 PM MDTRed Flag WarningBYZ31 hr
Sep 2, 12:10 PM MDTRed Flag WarningBYZ33 hr
Aug 27, 5:11 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ49 min
Aug 7, 12:13 PM MDTRed Flag WarningBYZ33 hr
Jul 31, 1:23 PM MDTRed Flag WarningBYZ61 hr
Jul 31, 12:29 PM MDTExtreme Heat WarningBYZ34 hr
Jul 25, 7:37 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ53 min
Jul 25, 7:19 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBYZ41 min
Jul 24, 1:09 PM MDTRed Flag WarningBYZ32 hr
Jul 23, 12:52 PM MDTExtreme Heat WarningBYZ4 days
Jul 16, 9:05 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBYZ70 min
Jul 16, 8:39 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ66 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.