Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Allegheny County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

1,018 severe thunderstorm warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of severe thunderstorm warnings reaches back to 1986.

Allegheny County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
1,018
Busiest year
202174 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
25over 41 years on file

Over time

By year

Before October 2007 these were issued for whole counties, and a storm crossing three counties was often three warnings; since then one polygon follows the storm. The count changed with the practice, not only with the weather.

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

From 2008 to 2025, 83% of hail, wind and damage reports in Allegheny County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 21 minutes before, and 18% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008211814%12100%18 min
200917947%863%22 min
2010261927%2286%29 min
2011423321%3675%24 min
201244409%7373%23 min
201342420%8885%22 min
2014241921%4073%22 min
2015433616%7777%25 min
2016211433%4180%15 min
201741395%5194%21 min
2018332524%3474%26 min
2019554518%5975%13 min
2020352723%7786%18 min
2021746414%11977%16 min
2022272315%5279%27 min
2023241825%7468%21 min
2024494018%13090%26 min
2025453327%17398%22 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.

The latest severe thunderstorm warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 13, 6:18 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ42 min
Sep 12, 3:01 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ59 min
Sep 9, 7:21 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ39 min
Sep 3, 8:44 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ46 min
Sep 3, 6:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ24 min
Sep 3, 6:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPBZ41 min
Sep 3, 6:21 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatPBZ24 min
Sep 3, 6:09 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatPBZ21 min
Sep 3, 5:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPBZ48 min
Sep 3, 5:47 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPBZ58 min
Sep 3, 5:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPBZ53 min
Sep 3, 7:20 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ40 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.