III.4: Severe Weather Data Inventory (SWDI)

Simplify access to current and past information about severe weather incidents

Other Information:

The SWDI at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) provides users access to archives of several data sets critical to the detection and evaluation of severe weather. These data sets include:  Next Generation Radar – or NEXRAD – Level-III point features describing general storm structure, hail, mesocyclone and tornado signatures,  NWS local storm reports collected from storm spotters,  NWS warnings, and  Lightning strikes from Vaisala’s National Lightning Detection Network. SWDI archives these data sets in a spatial database that permits convenient searching. These data are accessible via the NCDC website, FTP or automated Web services. The results of interactive Google Maps-based Web page queries may be saved in a variety of formats, including plain text, XML, Google Earth’s KMZ and Shapefile. Summary statistics, such as daily counts, allow efficient discovery of severe weather events. More information may be obtained at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/swdi.

Stakeholder(s):

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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