Alert archive / South Dakota

Weather alerts in Lawrence County, South Dakota

4,273 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Lawrence County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
4,273
Warnings
1,196
Watches
682
Advisories
869
Busiest year
2019310 alerts
Average year
107over 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 Lawrence County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 12 minutes before, and 87% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200820100%0
2009110%0
201520100%0
201610100%0
2018110%1100%12 min
201920100%0
202030100%0
202230100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008492941%2580%24 min
2009171418%888%25 min
2010161413%1385%24 min
2011251828%2085%13 min
2012302323%1889%17 min
2013473232%3784%11 min
2014151127%1331%12 min
2015332621%1688%24 min
2016302130%1573%11 min
2017191047%875%18 min
2018383216%4589%24 min
2019493431%34100%21 min
202045442%4188%28 min
202119185%1392%29 min
2022342721%1883%29 min
2023352820%13100%25 min
2024252212%1788%28 min
2025382047%1681%20 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200830100%0
200910100%0
201020100%0
201120100%0
201210100%0
201320100%0
20154250%1100%81 min
2018220%1100%62 min
20193233%2100%51 min
202020100%0
2023110%3100%26 min
2024110%1100%46 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
Aug 23, 1:36 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR54 min
Aug 18, 7:34 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR32 min
Aug 18, 7:03 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR32 min
Aug 11, 2:30 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatUNR38 min
Aug 11, 2:04 PM MDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatUNR42 min
Aug 7, 5:46 PM MDTRed Flag WarningUNR26 hr
Aug 2, 11:19 AM MDTRed Flag WarningUNR33 hr
Jul 24, 9:37 AM MDTRed Flag WarningUNR34 hr
Jul 18, 2:01 PM MDTFlash Flood WarningUNR72 min
Jul 11, 11:55 AM MDTRed Flag WarningUNR3 days
Jul 3, 11:51 AM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR54 min
Jul 3, 11:04 AM MDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR23 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.