Alert archive / North Carolina

Weather alerts in Washington County, North Carolina

2,715 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Washington County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,715
Warnings
491
Watches
481
Advisories
496
Busiest year
2011165 alerts
Average year
70over 39 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 Washington County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 13 minutes before, and 82% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
20094175%0
201030100%10%
201110280%1100%16 min
2012010%
20148275%0
201510100%0
201610100%0
201730100%0
201810100%0
20208363%1100%9 min
2021110%0
202220100%0
202450100%0
202520100%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
200814193%1100%17 min
200914657%2100%21 min
20106433%3100%33 min
201110730%540%40 min
201210550%10%
20135340%1100%51 min
20148275%3100%24 min
20155260%10%
20164325%475%22 min
20174250%250%25 min
20184325%4100%13 min
2019131023%3100%17 min
2020440%888%20 min
20219544%2100%26 min
2022161225%863%20 min
202315940%2100%27 min
202415847%5100%26 min
202511645%0

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2010010%
201110100%0
20162150%0
2017110%0
2019110%1100%273 min
2020110%0
202310100%0
202410100%0
202510100%0

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 4, 5:14 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX46 min
Aug 24, 6:03 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX15 min
Aug 24, 5:31 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX44 min
Aug 11, 6:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX42 min
Jul 28, 10:56 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX49 min
Jul 28, 10:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX53 min
Jul 20, 4:03 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX42 min
Jul 19, 6:10 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX44 min
Jul 7, 7:37 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX24 min
Jul 6, 2:30 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX28 min
Jun 28, 5:26 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX34 min
Jun 23, 4:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMHX52 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.