Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Durham County, North Carolina

3,836 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Durham County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,836
Warnings
1,009
Watches
499
Advisories
861
Busiest year
2011251 alerts
Average year
94over 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, 100% of tornado reports in Durham County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 18 minutes before, and 73% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
200910100%0
2010330%0
20114175%0
201220100%0
201310100%0
20145180%2100%4 min
20163233%3100%33 min
201820100%0
20195180%0
20202150%0
20212150%0
20227186%1100%1 min
202430100%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
2008422638%1694%20 min
200917947%978%34 min
2010272219%1894%17 min
2011382924%1894%20 min
2012342721%2291%23 min
201311918%1894%14 min
2014191711%2295%20 min
2015181517%1493%18 min
2016352529%2793%18 min
2017141214%1580%9 min
2018211910%12100%18 min
2019221723%944%33 min
2020171418%8100%23 min
202115147%7100%25 min
2022383118%1593%22 min
2023201810%1883%21 min
2024282511%1894%19 min
2025342915%13100%14 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087529%6100%155 min
2009220%1100%70 min
20106433%8100%51 min
2011440%8100%62 min
20123233%0
2013550%8100%82 min
2014440%5100%47 min
20153233%475%54 min
20168625%450%143 min
2017110%0
201813838%475%87 min
2019330%8100%76 min
20205420%989%111 min
202130100%0
20229633%5100%80 min
20236350%6100%76 min
2024151220%10100%30 min
20258713%1080%55 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, 6:26 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH64 min
Sep 5, 3:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH24 min
Sep 5, 1:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH44 min
Sep 4, 3:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH38 min
Aug 21, 6:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 min
Aug 17, 5:22 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH38 min
Aug 16, 2:43 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH27 min
Aug 16, 2:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH23 min
Aug 16, 1:19 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 min
Aug 8, 6:39 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH51 min
Aug 6, 7:35 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH40 min
Jul 28, 8:24 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH81 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.