Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Chester County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Chester County, Pennsylvania

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

Chester County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
852
Busiest year
202064 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
21over 40 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, 86% of hail, wind and damage reports in Chester County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 26 minutes before, and 26% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008271352%1377%37 min
2009312423%8100%34 min
2010352529%1587%29 min
2011322619%1385%26 min
2012211910%1392%24 min
2013191616%1164%25 min
2014211624%1759%36 min
2015321941%1164%24 min
2016231726%1878%14 min
2017352820%1275%31 min
2018251540%1883%24 min
2019595212%8990%29 min
2020645022%14790%29 min
2021443423%9688%24 min
2022292031%1984%27 min
2023543731%4779%21 min
2024302323%3892%24 min
2025382534%3388%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 2, 12:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI65 min
Sep 1, 8:17 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI58 min
Sep 1, 7:43 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI47 min
Sep 1, 7:13 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI47 min
Sep 1, 6:56 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI49 min
Aug 27, 10:22 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI38 min
Aug 27, 4:06 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI39 min
Aug 20, 5:27 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPHI48 min
Aug 20, 4:59 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatPHI46 min
Aug 20, 4:50 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPHI40 min
Aug 17, 6:45 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI32 min
Aug 17, 6:03 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI42 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.