Alert archive / North Dakota

Weather alerts in Mercer County, North Dakota

3,311 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Mercer County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,311
Warnings
967
Watches
601
Advisories
1,049
Busiest year
2008218 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, 60% of tornado reports in Mercer County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 24 minutes before, and 83% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008120100%0
200940100%0
201040100%0
20117443%2100%21 min
201410100%0
201510100%0
20188275%1100%31 min
201910100%10%
20202150%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
2008542652%2488%27 min
200919858%475%14 min
2010331748%7100%16 min
2011261158%12100%19 min
201214750%580%14 min
2013161319%8100%25 min
2014151033%978%25 min
2015231630%683%27 min
201625244%1776%31 min
20177529%1100%41 min
2018281450%989%42 min
2019151220%4100%12 min
202017571%5100%20 min
2021121017%1486%23 min
20229811%4100%24 min
2023121017%1794%34 min
2024181139%1191%16 min
2025181044%7100%23 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2010110%2100%66 min
20113167%0
2018110%1100%183 min
201910100%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, 11:11 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS64 min
Sep 6, 10:32 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS58 min
Sep 6, 9:48 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS57 min
Aug 30, 4:41 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS64 min
Aug 2, 2:52 AM CDTRed Flag WarningBIS42 hr
Jul 29, 5:12 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS48 min
Jul 24, 4:16 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS59 min
Jul 19, 5:17 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBIS43 min
Jul 10, 2:02 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningBIS5 days
Jul 5, 7:03 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBIS57 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.