Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Polk County, North Carolina

3,249 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Polk County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,249
Warnings
809
Watches
467
Advisories
808
Busiest year
2011239 alerts
Average year
79over 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 Polk County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 0 minutes before, and 88% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
200920100%0
201020100%0
201120100%0
201310100%0
2017010%
201910100%0
20202150%0
202130100%0
202210100%0
2024110%1100%0 min

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008211148%367%34 min
2009261735%8100%29 min
2010181422%5100%31 min
2011453718%1090%30 min
2012332621%1191%27 min
2013231917%1283%26 min
201415147%7100%14 min
2015151313%667%10 min
2016151220%6100%5 min
2017161413%450%17 min
2018332427%888%25 min
2019261735%771%21 min
2020181328%250%4 min
20216350%1100%20 min
2022251348%7100%8 min
2023292321%1392%15 min
2024161319%367%15 min
202513746%6100%42 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20092150%250%164 min
2010220%0
2011110%0
201210100%0
20134325%683%70 min
20142150%0
20152150%1100%173 min
2016110%0
2018990%1593%182 min
20204250%1100%251 min
20213233%10%
2022220%1100%110 min
20233167%3100%132 min
2024550%1100%20 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 22, 11:52 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningGSP5 hr
Sep 6, 3:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP52 min
Sep 6, 2:39 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP51 min
Sep 5, 1:38 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP37 min
Aug 21, 7:47 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP43 min
Aug 20, 10:23 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP52 min
Aug 20, 10:04 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP41 min
Aug 20, 9:27 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP33 min
Aug 20, 9:13 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP47 min
Aug 20, 8:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP44 min
Aug 20, 7:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP42 min
Aug 17, 8:21 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP39 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.