Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in New Hanover County, North Carolina

5,056 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

New Hanover County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
5,056
Warnings
662
Watches
431
Advisories
2,268
Busiest year
2024399 alerts
Average year
123over 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, 65% of tornado reports in New Hanover County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 9 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
2008110%1100%10 min
20116183%367%8 min
201210100%0
201310100%0
201430100%10%
2015110%0
201620100%10%
201710100%0
201811555%967%9 min
20199633%6100%9 min
20208450%10%
202310100%0
202450100%0
2025010%
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20089456%475%29 min
20094325%3100%33 min
20119722%1354%25 min
20128538%367%50 min
20136433%1100%61 min
20145340%367%36 min
2015440%850%14 min
20168625%450%6 min
2017330%3100%16 min
20185340%560%12 min
201912833%8100%10 min
20207529%956%27 min
20215340%367%12 min
20228538%7100%27 min
20237529%683%15 min
202413838%1479%27 min
2025110%475%52 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2009110%3100%75 min
201011109%2688%146 min
201410100%0
2015440%1292%114 min
2016550%9100%231 min
2017110%10%
201812925%3190%361 min
2019660%9100%84 min
202010100%0
20213167%2100%97 min
2022110%0
2023220%0
202411918%19100%93 min
2025110%1100%39 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 6, 5:36 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningILM3 hr
Sep 5, 6:29 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM61 min
Sep 5, 5:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM52 min
Aug 21, 4:35 PM EDTTornado WarningILM25 min
Aug 21, 4:33 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningILM4 hr
Aug 21, 3:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM60 min
Aug 21, 1:39 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM50 min
Aug 17, 2:21 PM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM30 hr
Aug 17, 2:22 AM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM18 hr
Aug 10, 3:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningILM45 min
Jul 10, 12:59 AM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM19 hr
Jul 9, 12:26 AM EDTExtreme Heat WarningILM20 hr

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.