Alert archive / North Dakota

Weather alerts in Wells County, North Dakota

3,097 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Wells County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,097
Warnings
761
Watches
556
Advisories
1,091
Busiest year
2011197 alerts
Average year
76over 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, 57% of tornado reports in Wells County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 8 minutes before, and 89% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200940100%0
20104175%2100%6 min
20119189%250%22 min
201620100%0
2019110%1100%0 min
202020100%0
202220100%10%
2024010%
202540100%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
200819479%580%4 min
20093167%667%9 min
201017759%4100%24 min
2011311745%863%18 min
20125260%2100%25 min
20137529%2100%14 min
2014880%5100%17 min
20157614%5100%28 min
2016171229%650%24 min
201710730%5100%29 min
201812833%9100%24 min
201911827%683%25 min
202012742%3100%40 min
2021660%6100%17 min
202213838%1292%22 min
20238538%4100%19 min
20247529%2100%9 min
2025271737%1392%29 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20085180%250%0 min
200910100%0
201010100%0
20115340%1100%167 min
201310100%0
2019220%2100%344 min
202010100%0
2022110%1100%52 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 7, 7:04 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS56 min
Sep 3, 9:26 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS34 min
Aug 24, 6:19 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatBIS56 min
Aug 24, 5:52 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS53 min
Jul 24, 4:51 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS54 min
Jul 24, 4:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS51 min
Jul 16, 10:29 PM CDTTornado WarningBIS31 min
Jul 16, 9:43 PM CDTTornado WarningBIS47 min
Jul 16, 9:17 PM CDTTornado WarningBIS28 min
Jul 10, 2:02 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningBIS5 days
Jul 9, 8:06 PM CDTTornado WarningBIS39 min
Jul 9, 7:54 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningBIS66 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.