Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Columbus County, North Carolina

3,691 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Columbus County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,691
Warnings
1,064
Watches
489
Advisories
719
Busiest year
2011238 alerts
Average year
90over 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, 84% of tornado reports in Columbus County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 11 minutes before, and 76% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20085260%3100%4 min
20092150%0
201010100%0
20119367%250%34 min
201230100%0
20135180%0
201410100%0
20152150%3100%3 min
201650100%0
201710100%0
20186183%1100%20 min
20199367%367%22 min
202019763%6100%9 min
202120100%10%
202230100%0
202410190%0
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
2008422345%2186%19 min
2009381561%8100%21 min
2010151127%0
2011433226%2986%25 min
2012483429%2685%16 min
2013161225%888%24 min
2014261831%7100%6 min
2015191237%1782%21 min
2016272026%1878%29 min
2017181044%967%21 min
201814657%580%30 min
201920955%7100%25 min
202014750%367%17 min
20219544%6100%22 min
2022161225%6100%17 min
2023191047%2100%30 min
2024271737%1995%31 min
2025201240%13100%37 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2010220%0
20155420%0
20167614%4100%77 min
20172150%1100%9 min
201810100%2882%451 min
20193233%0
20204325%5100%45 min
2021220%1100%39 min
20234325%5100%152 min
20249633%3100%200 min
20255420%5100%76 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 5, 6:29 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM61 min
Sep 5, 5:44 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM61 min
Sep 5, 5:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM40 min
Aug 21, 4:30 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM38 min
Aug 21, 4:10 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningILM5 hr
Aug 21, 3:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM64 min
Aug 21, 3:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM60 min
Aug 21, 2:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM38 min
Aug 17, 2:21 PM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM30 hr
Aug 17, 2:22 AM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM18 hr
Aug 16, 4:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM38 min
Aug 10, 3:33 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM31 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.