1. NCDC User & Engagement Services Branch Briefing of “Storm Data and the Storm Events Database” Presenter: Stuart Hinson – UESB/CMD Jan 23, 2014 * UESB Brief – Storm Data

2. Data Contacts UESB Brief – Storm Data * Role Name Facility/Division Raw Data Provider: Brent MacAloneyNWS - OCWWS - OS52 Performance Branch Provider: Dataset POC/SMEStuart HinsonCSMD/UESB Provider: Data Transfer Stuart Hinson / Helen Frederick Archive: SA LeadHeather BrownRSAD/AB Archive: IngestRobert McFaddenRSAD/AB Archive: StorageDavid BowmanRSAD/AB Archive: StorageRobert SummersRSAD/AB Archive: IT SecurityJennifer UrzenITB/Security Archive: AccessDeeDee Anders & Steve AnsariCSMD/DAAB Archive: SMEStuart HinsonCSMD/UESB

3. D ATA O VERVIEW Producer: National Weather Service Parameters: data contain a chronological listing, by state, of hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, hail, floods, drought conditions, lightning, high winds, snow, temperature extremes and other weather phenomena. Formats: 1950-1992 ~ SPC ASCII files coded from the CDNS and Storm Data Pub 1993-1995 ~ Word Perfect 5.0 files provided on 3.5” floppy diskettes 1996-09/2006 ~ Paradox Database files 10/2006-current ~ csv data dumps from NWS Storm Database in Windows SQL Time Period: 1950-1955 ~ Tornadoes only 1955-1992 ~ Tornadoes, Thunderstorm Winds & Hail only 1992-current ~ All Storm Events as reported in Storm Data that could be assigned into one of 48 NWS Event Types * UESB Brief – Storm Data

4. Spatial Coverage: CONUS, AK, HI, PR, VI, Pacific Territories Spatial Resolution: State FIPS, County FIPS, NWS Forecast Zones Temporal Resolution: Data are mostly reported by month, day, hour minute Update Frequency: NCDC pulls data from the NWS on the 15 th of every month for data ending 75 days prior (Example: January data are pulled April 15. Data that are entered or changed after this date/time are gathered in an additions/corrections file, far data entered to any prior month that are not already received) Source of the data: NWS Forecast Offices collect information from the local community, storm spotters, law enforcement and emergency managers, FEMA, etc. Access (by everyone or restricted): Everyone, no restrictions… Accessible forms/media (paper from pdf, ascii, text files, ftp, etc): NCDC Storm Events Database web page ~ http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/ Storm Events Database csv page ~ ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/swdi/stormevents/csvfiles/ Storm Data Archive ~ DSI-3910-01 Older Legacy Data 1950-09/2006 DSI-3910-02 Raw data files as received from the NWS DSI-3910-03 Current Database csv file dump Storm Data Publication on IPS D ATA O VERVIEW, C ONT.

5. NWS HQ Microsoft Windows SQL Server 2003 NWSFO NCDC Operator PC NCDC Web Access www NCDC Storm Events Database (cdo-db) NCDC Archive DSI-3910_02 (csv files) NCDC manual download of csv file Storm Data – Data Flow NCDC Storm Data Publication NCDC Archive DSI-3910_03 (database output files) cdo-test cdo-dev

6. U SER D ESCRIPTION * UESB Brief – Storm Data Users and usages: These data are heavily used by the general public, insurance adjusters, litigators, severe weather climatologists Quality Assurance/Control description: These data are received and archived with little to no QC or alterations. Data from previous versions are modified/normalized to fit the existing database schema, ie date formats, event type names Citations/Papers: Storm Data Powerpoint http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/swdi/stormevents/Storm%20Data.pptx

7. Access * Discovery Service: Data Access System: Storm Events Database http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/ Notional Dissemination Volume: User Documentation: Archive ~ with the archive Storm Events Database ~ FAQ: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/faq.jsphttp://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/faq.jsp National Weather Service Directive 10-1605 “Storm Data Preparation”: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/directives/sym/pd01016005curr.pdf UESB Brief – Storm Data