Weather alerts in South Dakota, 2026
2,015 weather alerts in 2026, 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 2026. Tap one for its archive.
- Alerts
- 2,015
- Warnings
- 993
- Watches
- 107
- Advisories
- 169
- Busiest month
- July543 alerts
- Busiest day
- July 2, 202695 alerts
Over time
By month
Warning verification
How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.
11 of 42 tornado warnings covering South Dakota in 2026 had a tornado report inside them; 14 of 19 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 13 minutes after it went out.
South Dakota, 2026
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tornado warnings | 42 | 11 | 74% | 19 | 74% | 13 min |
| Severe thunderstorm warnings | 786 | 460 | 41% | 1,329 | 78% | 24 min |
| Flash flood warnings | 21 | 12 | 43% | 23 | 74% | 64 min |
Each office's whole area, 2026
| Warnings | With a report | False alarm ratio | Reports | Inside a warning | Mean lead time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NWS Rapid City, SD: tornado warnings | 10 | 3 | 70% | 10 | 30% | 14 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 360 | 199 | 45% | 745 | 72% | 25 min |
| NWS Rapid City, SD: flash flood warnings | 5 | 4 | 20% | 8 | 88% | 95 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: tornado warnings | 10 | 3 | 70% | 8 | 75% | 8 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 283 | 150 | 47% | 363 | 75% | 25 min |
| NWS Aberdeen, SD: flash flood warnings | 7 | 5 | 29% | 12 | 67% | 49 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: tornado warnings | 40 | 13 | 68% | 23 | 65% | 12 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: severe thunderstorm warnings | 292 | 194 | 34% | 549 | 89% | 21 min |
| NWS Sioux Falls, SD: flash flood warnings | 16 | 4 | 75% | 5 | 80% | 12 min |
An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.
The year is still running; reports filed late and damage surveys can still change these figures.
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
2,015 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.
By county
Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.
- Pennington County224
- Custer County212
- Meade County206
- Oglala Lakota County204
- Fall River County196
- Jackson County184
- Bennett County172
- Edmunds County167
- McPherson County162
- Brown County161
- Perkins County160
- Stanley County159
- Haakon County157
- Dewey County155
- Jones County155
- Hand County153
- Lyman County152
- Walworth County150
- Campbell County149
- Harding County147
- Todd County147
- Hughes County142
- Charles Mix County142
- Hyde County141
- Mellette County140
- Sully County140
- Butte County139
- Corson County139
- Day County138
- Faulk County136
- Lincoln County135
- Turner County135
- Potter County134
- Lawrence County132
- Hutchinson County132
- Minnehaha County132
- Spink County132
- Roberts County131
- Marshall County131
- Ziebach County129
26 more counties
- Union County126
- Buffalo County125
- Grant County124
- McCook County123
- Yankton County122
- Beadle County121
- Clark County121
- Jerauld County120
- Tripp County117
- Bon Homme County117
- Gregory County117
- Aurora County117
- Lake County117
- Codington County117
- Brule County116
- Clay County116
- Hanson County115
- Miner County115
- Sanborn County113
- Douglas County111
- Kingsbury County111
- Deuel County110
- Davison County108
- Hamlin County107
- Brookings County103
- Moody County99
The busiest days
Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.
Nearby
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.