Alert archive / Pennsylvania

Weather alerts in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

4,486 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Philadelphia County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
4,486
Warnings
1,254
Watches
743
Advisories
1,152
Busiest year
2011366 alerts
Average year
109over 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, 25% of tornado reports in Philadelphia County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 0 minutes before, and 73% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%0
2010110%0
201130100%20%
201810100%0
201930100%0
202020100%0
20216433%250%0 min
20233167%0
202520100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200812925%560%18 min
2009221436%6100%19 min
2010161131%4100%39 min
2011221914%989%36 min
2012181517%3100%17 min
201312925%633%7 min
2014181517%1694%22 min
201510640%1164%29 min
2016161413%1593%25 min
2017252020%12100%20 min
201812742%1145%22 min
2019413320%3070%21 min
202042405%26100%22 min
2021423419%2479%20 min
2022151313%6100%28 min
2023352626%1090%25 min
2024211624%1694%23 min
2025262023%2095%27 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084325%250%53 min
20098363%10%
20105180%0
201111282%1100%4 min
20124250%1100%36 min
2013440%3100%53 min
20145420%7100%29 min
20157529%425%1 min
20164250%2100%30 min
20177271%250%144 min
201812925%3100%38 min
2019141214%8100%65 min
20208713%1283%75 min
2021181328%25100%103 min
20223233%367%103 min
202315940%875%104 min
202410640%1100%22 min
2025151220%18100%41 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 13, 8:06 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Sep 3, 5:26 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Sep 3, 1:34 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Aug 27, 7:00 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI3 hr
Aug 27, 2:38 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Aug 23, 3:49 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI3 hr
Aug 21, 12:43 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningPHI2 hr
Aug 20, 9:45 PM EDTAreal Flood WarningPHI3 hr
Aug 20, 6:26 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Aug 20, 6:13 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPHI47 min
Aug 20, 5:39 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningPHI4 hr
Aug 20, 5:27 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatPHI48 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.