Alert archive / South Dakota

Weather alerts in Douglas County, South Dakota

2,703 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Douglas County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,703
Warnings
702
Watches
587
Advisories
722
Busiest year
2010179 alerts
Average year
68over 40 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, 100% of tornado reports in Douglas County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 17 minutes before, and 63% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20096350%1100%14 min
20105340%3100%19 min
201130100%0
2015220%1100%15 min
201730100%0
20193167%0
202010100%0
202510100%0
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008211052%3100%33 min
200914936%367%11 min
2010221723%1242%10 min
2011131023%1100%15 min
20127614%683%26 min
20139544%0
20147529%5100%15 min
201513838%4100%16 min
20168538%0
201723219%1385%21 min
201814750%367%19 min
2019211624%475%15 min
2020271641%1070%8 min
20216433%0
2022231822%8100%13 min
202314657%250%8 min
20248538%1090%9 min
2025201525%12100%29 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008110%3100%176 min
2009110%10%
20106517%0
2011220%0
20143233%1100%144 min
2018220%2100%68 min
2019220%1100%151 min
2020330%2100%74 min
202410100%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 7, 11:55 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD50 min
Sep 7, 11:21 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD39 min
Sep 7, 11:19 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD41 min
Sep 7, 10:20 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD40 min
Sep 1, 6:24 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatFSD51 min
Sep 1, 5:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatFSD32 min
Aug 17, 11:54 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD22 min
Aug 17, 11:40 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD38 min
Jul 25, 7:06 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD39 min
Jul 24, 11:24 PM CDTExtreme Heat WarningFSD46 hr
Jul 1, 2:24 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatFSD66 min
Jul 1, 1:52 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatFSD38 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.