Alert archive / Virginia / Arlington County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Arlington County, Virginia

384 severe thunderstorm warnings since 1986. An alert counts here when it covered this county. The archive of severe thunderstorm warnings reaches back to 1986.

Arlington County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
384
Busiest year
201926 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
10over 40 years on file

Over time

By year

Before October 2007 these were issued for whole counties, and a storm crossing three counties was often three warnings; since then one polygon follows the storm. The count changed with the practice, not only with the weather.

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

From 2008 to 2025, 86% of hail, wind and damage reports in Arlington County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 22 minutes before, and 10% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008191711%520%18 min
2009660%0
2010191521%12100%28 min
201117170%888%22 min
201215150%11100%38 min
201311918%2100%6 min
201410910%580%26 min
2015181611%1191%11 min
2016181517%863%11 min
2017181611%8100%22 min
2018660%2100%25 min
201926248%4100%15 min
202016156%757%27 min
202125244%3297%17 min
202213128%729%28 min
202314137%9100%24 min
2024131023%8100%21 min
20259811%875%26 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.

The latest severe thunderstorm warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 3, 11:37 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatLWX38 min
Sep 3, 11:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX25 min
Aug 10, 5:05 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX25 min
Aug 10, 3:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX48 min
Jul 28, 6:17 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX28 min
Jul 18, 3:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX25 min
Jun 22, 6:09 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX51 min
Jun 22, 5:05 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX40 min
Jun 12, 7:09 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX36 min
Jun 12, 6:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatLWX42 min
Jun 11, 8:29 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX61 min
Jun 11, 7:54 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX36 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.