Alert archive / Virginia

Weather alerts in Essex County, Virginia

2,697 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Essex County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,697
Warnings
573
Watches
443
Advisories
329
Busiest year
2025191 alerts
Average year
67over 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 Essex County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 31 minutes before, and 74% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20083167%0
20103167%0
201150100%0
2012110%0
20145180%0
20154175%0
20168450%4100%31 min
201710100%0
201920100%0
202010100%0
202120100%0
20223167%0
20242150%0
202520100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008241346%6100%26 min
20098275%40%
20108713%250%22 min
2011312326%1392%21 min
201211109%4100%14 min
20139722%250%46 min
20149456%1030%19 min
201510730%2100%29 min
201610730%683%14 min
2017241825%4100%23 min
201813931%2100%25 min
2019201335%1100%27 min
2020181517%4100%17 min
2021141214%1100%11 min
2022151220%5100%12 min
2023231917%3100%29 min
2024131115%3100%23 min
2025312810%8100%15 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200910100%0
2011550%1100%105 min
20172150%0
20185420%2100%65 min
20203167%0
202110100%0
202210100%0
20234325%0
20243233%0
202511827%2100%77 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 22, 2:57 PM EDTCoastal Flood WarningAKQ5 days
Sep 4, 1:24 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ20 min
Aug 10, 6:46 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ44 min
Aug 10, 6:07 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ38 min
Aug 10, 5:24 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ51 min
Aug 7, 7:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ24 min
Jul 28, 8:16 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ44 min
Jul 28, 7:32 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ43 min
Jul 26, 11:56 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ37 min
Jul 26, 10:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threatAKQ42 min
Jul 22, 1:10 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ50 min
Jul 22, 12:11 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningAKQ3 hr

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.