USGS Volcano Status Scraper — Alert Levels & Aviation Color Codes

Pull every USGS-monitored U.S. volcano in one structured dataset: current ground alert level (NORMAL / ADVISORY / WATCH / WARNING), aviation color code (GREEN / YELLOW / ORANGE / RED), the responsible USGS observatory, and the most recent VONA / Information Statement notice. Powers aviation routing tools, hazards dashboards, geoscience apps, and emergency management pipelines.

The USGS Volcano Hazards Program continuously monitors more than 60 U.S. volcanoes and publishes alert states through the HANS public feed. This actor turns that feed into clean rows you can plug into anything from a Slack alert to a national-level dashboard.

What you get

Field	Description
volcanoName	Common volcano name (e.g. "Kilauea", "Mount St. Helens")
vnum	USGS Smithsonian volcano number (5–6 digits)
volcanoCode	USGS short code (e.g. "ak6", "hi1")
alertLevel	Ground alert level — NORMAL, ADVISORY, WATCH, WARNING
colorCode	Aviation color code — GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED
isElevated	true if volcano is currently above NORMAL (cross-checked against USGS elevated list)
observatoryFullName / observatoryAbbr	Responsible USGS observatory (AVO, CVO, HVO, YVO, LVO)
lastNoticeUtc	UTC timestamp of the most recent notice
lastNoticeUrl	Direct link to the notice on volcanoes.usgs.gov
lastNoticeApiUrl	JSON endpoint for the full notice text

How to scrape USGS volcano status

1. Click Try for free to start a default run (returns ~67 monitored volcanoes).
2. Optionally filter:
   • observatoryFilter — "avo", "cvo", "hvo", "yvo", "lvo"
   • minAlertLevel — "ADVISORY", "WATCH", "WARNING" (only return at-or-above)
   • elevatedOnly — true returns only volcanoes currently above NORMAL/GREEN
3. Run on a schedule (every 15–60 min) to track alert changes.

Pricing

$0.003 per record. A full pull (~67 monitored volcanoes) costs about $0.20 in result fees plus minimal compute. Apify compute is billed separately.

Example input

{
    "elevatedOnly": true,
    "minAlertLevel": "ADVISORY",
    "maxResults": 0
}

Example output

{
    "volcanoName": "Kilauea",
    "vnum": "332010",
    "alertLevel": "WATCH",
    "colorCode": "ORANGE",
    "isElevated": true,
    "observatoryFullName": "Hawaiian Volcano Observatory",
    "observatoryAbbr": "hvo",
    "lastNoticeUtc": "2026-05-04 23:50:28",
    "lastNoticeUrl": "https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public/notice/DOI-USGS-HVO-2026-05-04T22:04:34+00:00",
    "sourceUrl": "https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public/api/volcano/getMonitoredVolcanoes"
}

Use cases

• Aviation routing & dispatch — Avoid airspace near ORANGE/RED color-coded volcanoes (ash-cloud risk).
• Insurance / reinsurance — Track hazard exposure for catastrophe modeling.
• Emergency management — Build a single-pane status board for elevated volcanoes.
• News & data journalism — Detect alert-level changes immediately.

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• usgs-earthquake-scraper — Live USGS earthquake feed.
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• noaa-ncei-climate-scraper — NOAA daily climate observations.
• fema-disasters-scraper — FEMA federally declared disasters.

FAQ

Q: How often is the underlying feed updated? A: USGS pushes a new notice as soon as observatory analysts publish it. The getMonitoredVolcanoes snapshot reflects the latest state for every monitored volcano.

Q: What's the difference between alert level and color code? A: Alert level is the ground-hazard status (for nearby populations and emergency managers). The color code is the aviation hazard rating tied to ash-cloud risk. They usually move together but can diverge.

Q: Why are some volcanoes "UNASSIGNED"? A: Some monitored volcanoes don't have published alert states between events. They still appear in the dataset for completeness.

Legal

Data is sourced from the public USGS Volcano Hazards Program HANS feed (volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public). This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by USGS. The data is published for public use; verify any operational decision against the USGS source.