Alert archive / South Dakota

Weather alerts in Potter County, South Dakota

2,963 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Potter County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,963
Warnings
813
Watches
519
Advisories
880
Busiest year
2007152 alerts
Average year
72over 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, 33% of tornado reports in Potter County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 12 minutes before, and 85% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200820100%0
200930100%20%
20102150%0
20112150%1100%12 min
201310100%0
201610100%0
202010100%0
202510100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200819953%580%27 min
200914193%0
2010181328%4100%15 min
2011261735%1080%20 min
20129544%2100%25 min
2013181611%875%29 min
2014201240%4100%20 min
201515940%425%4 min
2016251732%4100%17 min
2017151127%4100%10 min
2018262119%6100%19 min
2019181328%1070%16 min
2020271544%560%11 min
2021151033%450%27 min
2022211910%1450%25 min
20238538%771%32 min
202411736%1258%36 min
2025241538%1464%23 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2009110%0
201020100%0
20114250%0
2014110%0
20152150%2100%87 min
201610100%0
2018110%1100%29 min
202210100%0
202510100%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 8, 9:23 AM CDTRed Flag WarningABR10 hr
Sep 6, 9:14 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR34 min
Sep 6, 8:26 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR49 min
Sep 5, 5:44 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR31 min
Sep 5, 4:32 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR16 min
Aug 30, 12:39 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatABR42 min
Aug 29, 11:45 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threatABR60 min
Aug 29, 10:41 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR36 min
Aug 29, 9:06 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR27 min
Aug 29, 7:58 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatABR47 min
Aug 29, 7:16 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatABR44 min
Aug 29, 6:30 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningABR60 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.