Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Orange County, North Carolina

3,527 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Orange County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,527
Warnings
913
Watches
486
Advisories
777
Busiest year
2011215 alerts
Average year
86over 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, 58% of tornado reports in Orange County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 3 minutes before, and 78% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
2010220%3100%1 min
201130100%0
201220100%0
201320100%0
201430100%0
20163167%0
201810100%0
20198275%2100%7 min
20203167%0
20213233%1100%6 min
202220100%20%
202430100%0
20254175%425%0 min
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008311842%1867%23 min
200916850%1567%29 min
2010272411%2882%27 min
2011211814%1958%22 min
2012292417%2588%19 min
2013131023%5100%17 min
2014201715%9100%19 min
2015221723%17100%28 min
2016312519%1889%28 min
201715147%1675%19 min
201821205%1979%18 min
2019231917%1587%30 min
2020131115%1267%24 min
2021141029%1560%14 min
2022383118%2396%22 min
202319190%2176%19 min
2024282414%771%10 min
2025262312%1688%19 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087443%2100%40 min
2009110%0
20104325%1100%95 min
2011220%6100%64 min
2012330%3100%52 min
2013440%9100%71 min
2014220%3100%33 min
20154175%367%67 min
20166517%667%147 min
2017110%5100%68 min
201811736%6100%280 min
2019220%1100%85 min
20204325%1100%29 min
202110100%0
20227614%8100%17 min
20234175%683%11 min
202412833%475%159 min
202512118%2785%159 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 18, 4:26 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH37 min
Sep 5, 1:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH44 min
Sep 4, 3:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH38 min
Aug 22, 10:45 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH45 min
Aug 21, 6:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 min
Aug 21, 5:49 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 min
Aug 17, 5:22 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH38 min
Aug 17, 4:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH39 min
Aug 16, 2:49 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 min
Aug 16, 2:43 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH27 min
Aug 16, 1:19 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRAH41 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.