Alert archive / Virginia / Washington County

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Washington County, Virginia

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

Washington County and its neighbors

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

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
446
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, 85% of hail, wind and damage reports in Washington County fell inside a severe thunderstorm warning issued on average 26 minutes before, and 24% of the severe thunderstorm warnings had no report inside them.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008211529%1385%26 min
2009161319%667%35 min
2010211433%9100%20 min
2011483527%1979%30 min
2012201145%875%28 min
201312925%0
2014211814%580%27 min
201512833%683%27 min
2016191616%888%32 min
20177443%2100%17 min
201810820%367%17 min
20198625%367%11 min
20208713%475%31 min
20218713%6100%18 min
2022171418%8100%23 min
2023171418%580%21 min
2024770%4100%30 min
2025131023%7100%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 21, 6:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX52 min
Sep 5, 11:16 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX74 min
Sep 5, 11:04 AM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX56 min
Aug 17, 5:04 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX41 min
Aug 17, 3:53 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX52 min
Aug 17, 3:26 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX49 min
Aug 17, 3:09 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX51 min
Aug 17, 2:45 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX45 min
Aug 16, 11:06 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX39 min
Aug 15, 2:18 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX42 min
Aug 13, 10:04 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX41 min
Aug 12, 11:04 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMRX41 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.