NOAA Storm Events Scraper — Damage, Hail & Tornado API

Search the official NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database for source-linked historical hail, tornado, thunderstorm wind, flood, hurricane, wildfire, winter-weather, and other significant-event records. Filter damage, injuries, deaths, magnitude, dates, states, counties/zones, locations, report sources, and narratives for insurance research, catastrophe analytics, roofing/restoration market analysis, emergency planning, and climate research.

This actor downloads the latest official compressed detail file for each requested year directly from NOAA. No API key, login, browser, or proxy is required.

Fast start

The default input returns 25 recent Texas hail reports from the currently available 2026 source file:

{
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "states": ["TX"],
  "eventTypes": ["Hail"],
  "sortBy": "latest",
  "maxResults": 25
}

Find severe hail reports for roofing, restoration, or property-risk research:

{
  "startDate": "2025-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "states": ["TX", "OK", "KS"],
  "eventTypes": ["Hail"],
  "minMagnitude": 1.75,
  "sortBy": "magnitude",
  "maxResults": 250
}

Find high-damage tornado and wind records:

{
  "startDate": "2024-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "states": ["FL", "GA", "NC", "SC"],
  "eventTypes": ["Tornado", "Thunderstorm Wind", "Hurricane (Typhoon)"],
  "minTotalDamage": 100000,
  "sortBy": "totalDamage",
  "maxResults": 500
}

Retrieve an exact known event while keeping its year in range:

{
  "eventId": "1316433",
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "endDate": "2026-12-31",
  "states": [],
  "eventTypes": [],
  "maxResults": 10
}

Filters

• exact numeric NOAA event ID
• inclusive start/end dates, with up to 10 calendar years per run
• state names or two-letter abbreviations
• exact county, parish, forecast-zone, or marine-zone names
• one or more exact NOAA event types
• case-insensitive keyword across event/episode narratives, locations, source, zone, and event type
• minimum property, crop, or combined damage estimate
• minimum direct + indirect injuries or deaths
• minimum source magnitude
• latest, oldest, damage, deaths, injuries, or magnitude sorting
• total maxResults cap from 1–1,000

All selected filters are combined. Multiple states, counties, and event types use OR within their own field.

Output

Each match has 60+ stable evidence keys, including:

• episode ID, event ID, event type, state, FIPS codes, year, and month
• county/parish, forecast-zone, or marine-zone identity
• NWS Forecast Office, local timezone, and begin/end timestamps
• direct, indirect, and total injuries and deaths
• original property/crop damage strings plus normalized estimated dollar amounts
• report source, magnitude, magnitude type, and event-specific interpretation
• flood cause and category
• tornado scale, track length/width, and continuation-zone fields
• begin/end range, azimuth, named location, latitude, and longitude
• complete episode and event narratives
• exact official NOAA source-file URL, file date, and retrieval timestamp
• source-lag, damage-estimate, accuracy, and historical-coverage caveats

No-match runs return an explicit NO_MATCHING_STORM_EVENTS item instead of an ambiguous empty dataset. Temporary source failures return SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE without claiming that no event occurred.

Use cases

• hail and severe-weather research for roofing and restoration markets
• property-insurance underwriting support and catastrophe-model QA
• historical storm, tornado, flood, wildfire, and wind analysis
• event-based claims research and post-catastrophe evidence gathering
• emergency-management and infrastructure-risk studies
• source-backed weather evidence for data pipelines and AI agents

Important scope and interpretation

This is historical post-event data, not a live warning or forecast feed. NCEI says records normally become available about 75–90 days after the end of a data month.

NOAA describes Storm Data as an official publication, but some information can come from media, law enforcement, private companies, individuals, and other outside sources. NWS uses the best available information but does not guarantee every value. Treat each record as source evidence, not a complete or independently verified loss determination.

Property and crop damage figures are broad NWS best estimates based on information available at publication time. They are nominal dollars, are not adjusted for inflation, may be blank or incomplete, and are not insurance claim totals.

Historical coverage changes by era:

• 1950–1954: tornadoes only
• 1955–1995: tornado, thunderstorm wind, and hail
• 1996 onward: all event types defined by the applicable NWS directive

Coordinates and location precision also vary by era and reporting method. Tornadoes can have multiple county/state segments, so an event row is not always one unique whole tornado.

Official sources

• NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database
• Official bulk CSV directory
• Storm Events Database details and historical coverage
• Storm Data FAQ, lag, accuracy, location, and damage guidance
• Bulk CSV format documentation