Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in North Carolina, 2023

4,964 weather alerts in 2023, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state.

Weather alerts by county

Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2023. Tap one for its archive.

Alerts
4,964
Warnings
1,566
Watches
167
Advisories
1,041
Busiest month
July1,185 alerts
Busiest day
August 15, 2023148 alerts

Over time

By month

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

7 of 51 tornado warnings covering North Carolina in 2023 had a tornado report inside them; 7 of 15 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 9 minutes after it went out.

North Carolina, 2023

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings51786%1547%9 min
Severe thunderstorm warnings76257325%1,43085%22 min
Flash flood warnings1065548%18482%102 min

Each office's whole area, 2023

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings14379%1127%2 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: severe thunderstorm warnings39229624%89586%21 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: flash flood warnings201050%2893%93 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings15193%333%4 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: severe thunderstorm warnings643053%7862%22 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: flash flood warnings151127%2893%134 min
NWS Morristown, TN: tornado warnings29486%1060%11 min
NWS Morristown, TN: severe thunderstorm warnings28224613%38589%22 min
NWS Morristown, TN: flash flood warnings452544%4879%51 min
NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC: tornado warnings90100%50%
NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC: severe thunderstorm warnings1016437%14287%25 min
NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC: flash flood warnings151127%4195%201 min
NWS Wakefield, VA: tornado warnings15473%683%10 min
NWS Wakefield, VA: severe thunderstorm warnings24416532%38389%21 min
NWS Wakefield, VA: flash flood warnings835830%10695%58 min
NWS Raleigh, NC: tornado warnings14286%3100%11 min
NWS Raleigh, NC: severe thunderstorm warnings22117919%51386%23 min
NWS Raleigh, NC: flash flood warnings492549%9078%44 min
NWS Blacksburg, VA: tornado warnings8188%2100%6 min
NWS Blacksburg, VA: severe thunderstorm warnings22519712%77675%22 min
NWS Blacksburg, VA: flash flood warnings301840%6070%88 min

An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.

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 alerts

4,964 alerts are too many to list on one page. Narrow it to a product above, to a month in the chart, or to a county.

By product

Every kind of product issued here, grouped by hazard. Each opens the same place narrowed to that product.

By county

Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.

60 more counties

The busiest days

Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20222024

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.