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Full catalog/SWDI
SWDI·dataset

US severe weather and storm events database (NOAA)

NOAA Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI)
atmosphere NOAA NOAA active
In plain English

What it measures. A searchable record of severe weather events across the U.S. since 1950, noting each event's location, intensity, impacts, and the cost of damage to property and crops.

How it's made. NOAA compiles documented storms and significant weather phenomena into an integrated database, adding each event within about 120 days to allow for damage assessment.

How & where you'd use it. Researchers, insurers, journalists, and planners use it to study where and how often damaging weather strikes and what it costs.

What's measured

aws-pdsagricultureclimatemeteorologicalweather

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span— → ongoing

What you can do with it

  • Map air pollutants — NO₂, aerosols, ozone
  • Track greenhouse gases and Earth's energy budget
  • Feed weather and air-quality analysis
Official description

The Storm Events Database is an integrated database of severe weather events across the United States from 1950 to this year, with information about a storm event's location, azimuth, distance, impact, and severity, including the cost of damages to property and crops. It contains data documenting: The occurrence of storms and other significant weather phenomena having sufficient intensity to cause loss of life, injuries, significant property damage, and/or disruption to commerce. Rare, unusual, weather phenomena that generate media attention, such as snow flurries in South Florida or the San Diego coastal area. Other significant meteorological events, such as record maximum or minimum temperatures or precipitation that occur in connection with another event. Data about a specific event is added to the dataset within 120 days to allow time for damage assessments and other analysis.

Get the data

noaa_access.py
# NOAA Open Data on AWS — public S3, no login
import s3fs

fs = s3fs.S3FileSystem(anon=True)
# find this dataset's bucket in the docs link in the sidebar, then:
# files = fs.ls("noaa-<bucket>/...")
# open NetCDF/GRIB with xarray, COGs with rioxarray
NOAA Open Data is on public AWS S3 — no login at all (anonymous access).