Alert archive / North Dakota

Weather alerts in McKenzie County, North Dakota

3,317 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

McKenzie County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,317
Warnings
1,149
Watches
553
Advisories
955
Busiest year
2010235 alerts
Average year
83over 40 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, 67% of tornado reports in McKenzie County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 9 minutes before, and 69% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008110%0
200920100%0
2011110%1100%17 min
20146183%560%2 min
20165180%367%10 min
20184250%250%22 min
202020100%0
20218363%3100%9 min
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
200830873%2100%33 min
2009261254%580%30 min
2010572065%1392%26 min
2011301163%367%41 min
2012261254%888%32 min
2013281739%20100%23 min
2014171135%1479%24 min
2015171418%1958%27 min
2016211624%1471%28 min
20178538%5100%38 min
2018241825%21100%31 min
2019201240%1191%29 min
202017947%989%34 min
2021262119%1681%28 min
202211555%250%45 min
2023171324%1694%20 min
2024201335%1191%26 min
2025171041%838%20 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2009110%0
20107186%0
20113167%0
201220100%0
2015110%0
201610100%0
2021110%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 14, 4:40 AM CDTHigh Wind WarningBIS19 hr
Sep 9, 1:15 PM CDTRed Flag WarningBIS32 hr
Sep 6, 8:14 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS22 min
Sep 6, 7:42 PM CDTTornado WarningBIS33 min
Sep 6, 7:20 PM CDTTornado Warning Tornado observedBIS40 min
Sep 6, 6:44 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBIS61 min
Sep 6, 6:02 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS43 min
Sep 6, 5:15 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS60 min
Aug 30, 4:05 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS55 min
Aug 30, 5:13 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS62 min
Aug 30, 4:13 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS62 min
Aug 5, 12:13 PM CDTRed Flag WarningBIS33 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.