Alert archive / Wisconsin

Weather alerts in Columbia County, Wisconsin

3,075 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Columbia County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,075
Warnings
929
Watches
499
Advisories
799
Busiest year
2008184 alerts
Average year
75over 41 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, 72% of tornado reports in Columbia County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 21 minutes before, and 67% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200810820%786%31 min
200920100%0
20109456%3100%5 min
2013110%2100%16 min
201710100%0
201830100%20%
202010100%0
20214175%333%15 min
202240100%0
202320100%0
20247271%0
202510280%1100%24 min
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200820860%1233%31 min
20094250%683%7 min
201010460%580%32 min
2011211052%2100%22 min
201213838%475%21 min
2013191142%1090%17 min
2014201145%450%22 min
20159811%989%26 min
2016161131%1275%25 min
2017241825%888%19 min
2018191332%1776%15 min
201912650%771%18 min
2020181044%1354%26 min
202114936%1050%27 min
2022281739%1688%27 min
202313838%1173%19 min
2024181139%580%37 min
2025311745%888%12 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200814564%667%92 min
20107186%250%75 min
20132150%0
201410100%0
201510100%10%
2016220%0
20185340%2100%85 min
20193233%250%2 min
20204325%4100%97 min
202310100%0
20245180%333%29 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
Aug 18, 5:45 PM CDTTornado WarningMKX18 min
Aug 18, 5:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX63 min
Aug 18, 5:08 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX52 min
Aug 18, 4:48 PM CDTTornado WarningMKX42 min
Aug 18, 3:57 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX78 min
Aug 9, 9:45 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX45 min
Aug 9, 9:28 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX47 min
Aug 9, 9:00 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX45 min
Jul 27, 9:06 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningMKX12 hr
Jul 8, 9:21 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX17 min
Jul 8, 8:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX48 min
Jul 8, 8:38 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX52 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.