Alert archive / West Virginia

Weather alerts in Preston County, West Virginia

2,338 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Preston County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
2,338
Warnings
785
Watches
401
Advisories
356
Busiest year
2024157 alerts
Average year
58over 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, 0% of tornado reports in Preston County fell inside a tornado warning, and 88% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
2008010%
200920100%0
201020100%0
201310100%0
201410100%0
201520100%0
2016110%0
2017110%0
201810100%0
202220100%0
202310100%0
202410100%20%
202510100%0

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200816944%650%28 min
200910460%1100%13 min
2010181233%7100%27 min
2011141029%5100%21 min
2012181517%1182%13 min
201319185%1688%26 min
20148625%1663%18 min
201511918%10100%14 min
201613931%14100%32 min
2017121017%1283%22 min
20186433%250%18 min
201911827%540%8 min
202013931%540%29 min
2021201430%1090%16 min
2022191711%1963%25 min
202310820%3474%21 min
2024261735%1675%22 min
2025332427%4398%19 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810100%10%
20112150%3100%77 min
2012110%2100%52 min
20142150%1100%21 min
2015110%1100%12 min
201710100%0
2018110%0
20198450%5100%113 min
20213233%9100%187 min
202210100%0
2023110%0
20244325%0
202510640%1182%95 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, 1:28 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ62 min
Sep 3, 10:24 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ21 min
Sep 3, 10:10 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ65 min
Sep 3, 9:24 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ66 min
Aug 27, 8:32 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ58 min
Aug 16, 4:55 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ50 min
Aug 16, 4:44 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ16 min
Aug 16, 4:28 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ32 min
Aug 16, 4:05 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ40 min
Aug 11, 4:45 AM EDTAreal Flood WarningPBZ4 hr
Aug 10, 1:28 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ21 min
Aug 10, 12:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ57 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.