The Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI) is an integrated database of U.S. severe weather records that provides access to data from a variety of sources in the NCEI archive. SWDI includes multiple search and access methods for records that cover particular time periods and geographic regions. Data are currently available in Shapefile (for GIS), KMZ (for Google Earth), CSV (comma-separated), and XML formats.
Access Methods
Interactive Map
Use the interactive map to search and download data for specific locations and time-frames.
Web Services
Use SWDI web services to automate queries, or integrate data into your own application.
Quality Control Disclaimer
SWDI provides a uniform way to access data from a variety of sources, but it does not provide any additional quality control beyond the processing that takes place during data archival. The data sources in SWDI will not provide complete severe weather coverage of a geographic region or time period due to a number of factors (e.g., reports for a location or time period not provided to NOAA). The absence of SWDI data for a particular location and time doesn't mean that no severe weather occurred within those parameters. Much of the automatically derived data in SWDI is from radar data that represents probable conditions for an event rather than a confirmed occurrence.
Interface Control Document for Product Specification
Dataset Documentation
- Filtered Storm Cells (Max Reflectivity >= 45 dBZ) from NEXRAD (Level-III Storm Structure Product)
- All Storm Cells from NEXRAD (Level-III Storm Structure Product)
- Filtered Hail Signatures (Max Size > 0 and Probability = 100%) from NEXRAD (Level-III Hail Product)
- All Hail Signatures from NEXRAD (Level-III Hail Product)
- Mesocyclone Signatures from NEXRAD (Level-III Meso Product)
- Digital Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm from NEXRAD (Level-III MDA Product)
- Tornado Signatures from NEXRAD (Level-III TVS Product)
- Preliminary Local Storm Reports from the NOAA National Weather Service
- Lightning Strikes from Vaisala NLDN
