Alert archive / Wisconsin

Weather alerts in Sauk County, Wisconsin

3,067 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Sauk County and its neighbors

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

Alerts
3,067
Warnings
831
Watches
512
Advisories
783
Busiest year
2008180 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, 100% of tornado reports in Sauk County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 17 minutes before, and 71% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087443%1100%30 min
200910100%0
20104175%0
201110100%0
201710100%0
201830100%0
202240100%0
202310100%0
20245260%0
20257357%1100%4 min

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200811645%1443%47 min
20093233%0
20109456%367%15 min
201121862%771%30 min
201212833%1354%12 min
201313746%967%20 min
2014211148%1070%16 min
201510820%475%10 min
201616944%875%39 min
2017191237%9100%23 min
201811827%1173%29 min
201912742%989%17 min
202012650%888%26 min
2021171041%1080%28 min
202217947%667%38 min
202311645%1050%33 min
202421862%6100%20 min
2025171041%967%17 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200814750%989%156 min
2009220%0
20105340%250%64 min
2013220%250%54 min
201420100%0
2015010%
20163233%0
20184250%3100%142 min
20195340%786%62 min
202010100%0
202310100%0
2024220%450%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.

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 21, 3:23 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX52 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, 9:00 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX45 min
Jul 27, 9:06 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningMKX12 hr
Jul 8, 8:42 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX48 min
Jul 2, 5:01 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX74 min
Jul 2, 4:25 PM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX65 min
Jul 1, 10:04 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX41 min
Jul 1, 5:18 AM CDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningMKX42 min
Jun 28, 11:55 AM CDTExtreme Heat WarningMKX4 days

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.