Weather alerts in South Dakota, 2024
1,865 weather alerts in 2024, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state.
Weather alerts by county
Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2024. Tap one for its archive.
- Alerts
- 1,865
- Warnings
- 795
- Watches
- 121
- Advisories
- 250
- Busiest month
- June428 alerts
- Busiest day
- June 21, 202460 alerts
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
5 of 35 tornado warnings covering South Dakota in 2024 had a tornado report inside them; 11 of 12 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 11 minutes after it went out.
South Dakota, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 35 | 5 | 86% | 12 | 92% | 11 min |
| Severe thunderstorm warnings | 524 | 341 | 35% | 890 | 79% | 24 min |
| Flash flood warnings | 40 | 27 | 32% | 39 | 85% | 83 min |
Each office's whole area, 2024
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: tornado warnings | 14 | 3 | 79% | 7 | 100% | 14 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 179 | 95 | 47% | 252 | 74% | 24 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: flash flood warnings | 14 | 7 | 50% | 9 | 78% | 33 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: tornado warnings | 27 | 4 | 85% | 12 | 50% | 9 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 147 | 91 | 38% | 246 | 76% | 19 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: flash flood warnings | 34 | 29 | 15% | 54 | 89% | 90 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: tornado warnings | 11 | 2 | 82% | 4 | 100% | 6 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 299 | 221 | 26% | 611 | 79% | 25 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: flash flood warnings | 3 | 1 | 67% | 1 | 100% | 46 min |
An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.
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 alerts
1,865 alerts are too many to list on one page. Narrow it to a product above, to a month in the chart, or to a county.
By product
Every kind of product issued here, grouped by hazard. Each opens the same place narrowed to that product.
| Product | Alerts |
|---|---|
| Severe storms | |
| Severe Thunderstorm Warning | 524 |
| Tornado Warning | 35 |
| Severe Thunderstorm Watch | 48 |
| Tornado Watch | 5 |
| Mesoscale Discussion | 147 |
| Special Weather Statement | 552 |
| Flooding | |
| Areal Flood Warning | 23 |
| Flash Flood Warning | 40 |
| River Flood Warning | 64 |
| Flood Watch | 4 |
| Areal Flood Advisory | 2 |
| Winter | |
| Blizzard Warning | 4 |
| Winter Storm Warning | 12 |
| Winter Storm Watch | 8 |
| Winter Weather Advisory | 52 |
| Heat | |
| Excessive Heat Warning | 3 |
| Heat Advisory | 21 |
| Cold | |
| Freeze Warning | 10 |
| Wind Chill Warning | 3 |
| Frost Advisory | 4 |
| Wind Chill Advisory | 12 |
| Wind and dust | |
| High Wind Warning | 17 |
| High Wind Watch | 10 |
| Wind Advisory | 85 |
| Fire | |
| Red Flag Warning | 60 |
| Fire Weather Watch | 46 |
| Fog and smoke | |
| Dense Fog Advisory | 74 |
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Pennington County283
- Meade County244
- Custer County227
- Oglala Lakota County206
- Jackson County198
- Fall River County182
- Haakon County179
- Bennett County177
- Todd County171
- Butte County170
- Lawrence County170
- Stanley County169
- Perkins County156
- Dewey County155
- Mellette County152
- Corson County152
- Jones County148
- Ziebach County147
- Union County145
- Tripp County142
- Lincoln County140
- Minnehaha County138
- Turner County136
- Clay County135
- Lyman County132
- Campbell County130
- Hand County130
- Hughes County130
- Hyde County130
- Sully County130
- Davison County130
- Yankton County128
- Hutchinson County125
- Brown County125
- Walworth County123
- McCook County123
- Charles Mix County123
- Harding County123
- Moody County122
- Potter County121
26 more counties
- Douglas County121
- Aurora County120
- Hanson County119
- Gregory County119
- Codington County118
- McPherson County118
- Bon Homme County117
- Day County116
- Sanborn County116
- Faulk County116
- Spink County116
- Buffalo County115
- Hamlin County115
- Brule County115
- Clark County114
- Brookings County112
- Lake County112
- Miner County112
- Edmunds County112
- Beadle County110
- Deuel County109
- Kingsbury County107
- Grant County106
- Jerauld County105
- Roberts County103
- Marshall County100
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20232025
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.