Alert archive / North Dakota / Tornado Warnings
Tornado Warnings in North Dakota, 2019
30 tornado warnings in 2019. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.
Tornado Warnings by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2019. Tap one for its archive.
- Tornado Warnings
- 30
- Busiest month
- July18 tornado warnings
- Busiest day
- July 13, 20195 tornado warnings
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
13 of 30 tornado warnings covering North Dakota in 2019 had a tornado report inside them; 18 of 22 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 5 minutes after it went out.
North Dakota, 2019
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 30 | 13 | 57% | 22 | 82% | 5 min |
Each office's whole area, 2019
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Grand Forks, ND: tornado warnings | 27 | 13 | 52% | 33 | 79% | 12 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: tornado warnings | 5 | 2 | 60% | 8 | 38% | 10 min |
| NWS Bismarck, ND: tornado warnings | 15 | 5 | 67% | 6 | 83% | 3 min |
An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.
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.
The alerts
Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Central Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 24, 5:23 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Barnes, Griggs | 37 min |
| May 24, 6:09 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Barnes | 36 min |
| May 24, 6:15 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Steele | 45 min |
| Jun 15, 2:43 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Stutsman | 17 min |
| Jun 15, 4:29 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Wells | 16 min |
| Jun 15, 6:35 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Dickey | 25 min |
| Jun 29, 8:11 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Grant | 34 min |
| Jul 2, 5:25 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Hettinger | 35 min |
| Jul 8, 2:10 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | McLean, Mercer, Oliver | 35 min |
| Jul 8, 2:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | McLean, Sheridan | 33 min |
| Jul 8, 4:22 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cavalier, Ramsey | 38 min |
| Jul 9, 5:15 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cass, Richland | 30 min |
| Jul 9, 5:25 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Richland | 50 min |
| Jul 9, 5:44 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cass, Richland | 46 min |
| Jul 9, 5:46 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Richland | 44 min |
| Jul 12, 9:42 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Hettinger, Stark | 33 min |
| Jul 12, 10:27 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Adams, Hettinger | 33 min |
| Jul 12, 10:48 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Adams, Hettinger | 27 min |
| Jul 12, 11:00 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Adams, Grant, Hettinger | 30 min |
| Jul 13, 5:19 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Burke, Renville | 26 min |
| Jul 14, 3:50 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Richland | 40 min |
| Jul 17, 7:03 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Sioux | 27 min |
| Jul 17, 7:04 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | Stark | 26 min |
| Jul 28, 2:12 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Nelson | 48 min |
| Jul 28, 2:44 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Grand Forks, Nelson, Pembina, Walsh | 46 min |
| Aug 12, 7:40 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | BIS | McLean | 35 min |
| Sep 20, 5:59 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cavalier, Towner | 25 min |
| Sep 20, 7:14 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cass | 31 min |
| Sep 20, 7:39 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cass | 36 min |
| Sep 20, 8:36 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | FGF | Cass, Traill | 24 min |
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Hettinger County5
- Cass County5
- Richland County5
- McLean County3
- Adams County3
- Barnes County2
- Grant County2
- Cavalier County2
- Stark County2
- Nelson County2
- Griggs County1
- Steele County1
- Stutsman County1
- Wells County1
- Dickey County1
- Mercer County1
- Oliver County1
- Sheridan County1
- Ramsey County1
- Burke County1
- Renville County1
- Sioux County1
- Grand Forks County1
- Pembina County1
- Walsh County1
- Towner County1
- Traill County1
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20182020
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.