Alert archive / Virginia / Botetourt County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Botetourt County, Virginia

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

Botetourt County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
547
Busiest year
200845 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
14over 39 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, 76% of hail, wind and damage reports in Botetourt County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 20 minutes before, and 26% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008453229%683%34 min
200913838%3100%34 min
201027264%1182%20 min
2011463426%1385%14 min
2012221150%1173%24 min
2013221532%888%11 min
201414936%475%22 min
2015151313%475%26 min
2016292417%1782%25 min
201712925%9100%14 min
201816944%450%39 min
2019423224%2767%20 min
2020201145%1182%21 min
2021262023%1776%15 min
2022292610%2972%19 min
202314137%580%36 min
202412833%425%1 min
2025231726%1275%21 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 21, 2:16 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK59 min
Sep 4, 5:52 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK68 min
Sep 4, 5:28 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK62 min
Sep 2, 7:13 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK47 min
Aug 14, 4:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK41 min
Aug 14, 4:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK37 min
Aug 10, 4:02 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK73 min
Aug 10, 3:44 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK76 min
Jul 28, 4:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK64 min
Jul 18, 3:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK54 min
Jul 18, 2:33 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK39 min
Jul 6, 8:49 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK38 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.