Alert archive / South Dakota

Weather alerts in McCook County, South Dakota

2,867 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

McCook County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,867
Warnings
849
Watches
529
Advisories
784
Busiest year
2010178 alerts
Average year
70over 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, 100% of tornado reports in McCook County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 19 minutes before, and 81% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200820100%0
20098363%1100%30 min
201010100%0
20113167%0
201410100%0
2015110%0
201720100%0
201810100%0
201930100%0
202020100%0
20225180%1100%8 min
202320100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200816475%1100%27 min
2009211433%1553%8 min
2010241825%978%22 min
2011201715%1553%23 min
2012231917%1593%23 min
20138538%0
201413377%2100%17 min
201511827%3100%12 min
201611645%3100%8 min
2017231726%4100%13 min
201810550%475%6 min
201919185%8100%18 min
202013931%560%33 min
202115847%683%12 min
2022322134%1392%27 min
202314750%683%33 min
202411109%4100%13 min
2025261735%989%20 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008330%0
2010330%10%
201310100%0
20143167%0
2015220%0
20163233%0
2018220%0
20194325%1100%53 min
2024330%4100%236 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 11, 7:48 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD22 min
Sep 5, 3:42 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD48 min
Aug 20, 7:44 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD46 min
Aug 20, 6:56 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD49 min
Aug 20, 6:43 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD47 min
Aug 7, 5:08 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD52 min
Jul 25, 8:04 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD41 min
Jul 25, 7:29 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD46 min
Jul 25, 7:23 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD37 min
Jul 24, 11:24 PM CDTExtreme Heat WarningFSD46 hr
Jul 2, 7:40 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD50 min
Jul 2, 7:02 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD43 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.