Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Catawba County, North Carolina

3,274 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Catawba County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,274
Warnings
944
Watches
410
Advisories
785
Busiest year
2011224 alerts
Average year
80over 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, 50% of tornado reports in Catawba County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 36 minutes before, and 80% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084250%1100%27 min
200920100%0
201010280%1100%44 min
20113167%0
201230100%0
201420100%0
201610100%0
20175260%0
201940100%0
202010100%0
202110100%0
20228275%0
2023010%
202420100%10%
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008362628%1573%25 min
200919953%6100%16 min
2010372727%1883%23 min
2011645711%5288%27 min
2012332815%1486%19 min
2013292321%1377%19 min
2014262023%1191%21 min
201511109%1694%15 min
2016171512%2793%17 min
201721205%3468%21 min
2018272219%1889%27 min
2019302227%1060%14 min
2020161038%1275%20 min
20219633%333%7 min
2022271641%1050%28 min
2023261831%3385%25 min
2024322134%1580%33 min
20259811%944%10 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084250%3100%107 min
20102150%4100%113 min
20122150%425%24 min
2013880%6100%73 min
201410100%0
2015110%0
2016220%475%21 min
2018110%1100%130 min
20195420%10100%99 min
202013931%9100%106 min
20212150%0
20245260%4100%67 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.

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 21, 6:44 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP46 min
Sep 18, 4:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP41 min
Sep 18, 3:32 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP43 min
Sep 5, 1:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP48 min
Sep 5, 1:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP41 min
Aug 28, 3:01 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP44 min
Aug 20, 9:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP37 min
Aug 17, 8:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP46 min
Aug 17, 7:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP39 min
Aug 17, 7:33 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP42 min
Aug 11, 5:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP44 min
Aug 11, 5:01 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP44 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.