Alert archive / Virginia / Roanoke County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Roanoke County, Virginia

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

Roanoke County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
456
Busiest year
201148 severe thunderstorm warnings
Average year
12over 38 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, 77% of hail, wind and damage reports in Roanoke County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 22 minutes before, and 18% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008312616%11100%19 min
2009171135%333%4 min
2010181611%650%24 min
2011503824%2396%18 min
2012201810%1782%24 min
201311109%1392%19 min
20148538%0
201512120%1567%31 min
201625244%1675%18 min
201711110%5100%25 min
201814750%425%8 min
2019272219%2365%33 min
202010730%771%33 min
2021171229%12100%12 min
202218176%2875%22 min
202314140%1258%23 min
2024151127%1080%20 min
2025201620%367%20 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
Aug 22, 6:54 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK66 min
Aug 14, 4:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK37 min
Aug 10, 4:02 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK73 min
Jul 28, 4:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK64 min
Jul 28, 3:11 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK64 min
Jul 18, 3:36 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK54 min
Jul 8, 5:59 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK61 min
Jul 4, 4:20 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK55 min
Jun 22, 5:15 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK60 min
Jun 12, 5:41 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK64 min
Apr 1, 5:42 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK63 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.