Alert archive / Virginia

Weather alerts in Spotsylvania County, Virginia

2,979 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Spotsylvania County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,979
Warnings
838
Watches
670
Advisories
473
Busiest year
2011207 alerts
Average year
78over 38 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, 50% of tornado reports in Spotsylvania County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 2 minutes before, and 95% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084175%0
200920100%0
201030100%0
201160100%0
20132150%250%2 min
201510100%0
201640100%0
201720100%0
201830100%0
201930100%0
202120100%0
202210100%0
202310100%0
202420100%0
202510100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008241250%1457%18 min
2009281836%1984%24 min
201022209%13100%28 min
2011282221%2492%21 min
2012262215%3294%27 min
201314137%3992%29 min
2014171512%14100%23 min
2015131023%4100%20 min
2016262119%3866%18 min
2017181422%1283%17 min
2018131115%1164%23 min
2019392828%4274%24 min
2020262215%2793%26 min
2021241633%2085%13 min
2022252020%1984%21 min
202317947%944%15 min
2024221818%1560%15 min
202512925%6100%23 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008220%0
20094250%367%104 min
2010330%3100%61 min
20118625%1100%179 min
20123233%580%82 min
2013110%2100%8 min
201420100%0
20153233%1100%2 min
2016220%2100%45 min
20182150%0
201910100%0
20203167%1100%21 min
2022110%0
202420100%0
20255340%3100%74 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 4, 4:15 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX45 min
Sep 4, 3:54 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX36 min
Sep 2, 4:39 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX18 min
Sep 2, 3:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX37 min
Aug 22, 9:02 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX28 min
Aug 22, 8:29 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX31 min
Aug 14, 7:43 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX32 min
Aug 14, 7:19 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX26 min
Aug 10, 4:06 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX69 min
Aug 8, 4:00 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX60 min
Jul 28, 6:28 PM EDTTornado WarningLWX15 min
Jul 28, 5:46 PM EDTTornado WarningLWX29 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.