Alert archive / Pennsylvania

Weather alerts in Columbia County, Pennsylvania

3,144 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Columbia County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,144
Warnings
772
Watches
534
Advisories
708
Busiest year
2011251 alerts
Average year
83over 38 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, 0% of tornado reports in Columbia County fell inside a tornado warning, and 83% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200910100%0
201210100%0
201410100%0
20153167%0
2017110%0
201830100%0
201910100%10%
202310100%10%

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200811373%3100%31 min
200917947%3100%36 min
2010171418%6100%34 min
2011312035%560%32 min
2012241442%875%20 min
2013261735%10100%23 min
2014191332%1292%36 min
2015171041%683%18 min
201610820%5100%31 min
2017141029%580%16 min
201810730%875%49 min
2019201240%2100%27 min
20208625%838%8 min
2021262215%1989%26 min
202211918%10100%29 min
202317947%978%22 min
2024171041%1385%18 min
20259633%683%20 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2009220%2100%87 min
201020100%0
201113746%367%186 min
201230100%20%
2013330%4100%60 min
2017110%1100%78 min
20188538%4100%196 min
20192150%3100%8 min
2021440%0
20232150%0
20252150%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 1, 7:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP44 min
Sep 1, 6:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP52 min
Sep 1, 5:46 PM EDTTornado WarningCTP29 min
Sep 1, 5:42 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP48 min
Sep 1, 5:10 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP50 min
Aug 27, 11:11 PM EDTAreal Flood WarningCTP3 hr
Aug 27, 10:24 PM EDTAreal Flood WarningCTP4 hr
Aug 27, 8:29 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCTP3 hr
Aug 27, 8:26 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP64 min
Aug 27, 7:22 PM EDTFlash Flood Warning Considerable damage threatCTP3 hr
Aug 27, 7:14 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP46 min
Aug 27, 6:35 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP40 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.