NOAA Storm Events Database Scraper

NOAA Storm Events Database Scraper

Scrape NOAA storm events by type, state, and year, up to a million records per run. Each event includes location, magnitude, injuries, fatalities, and property damage estimates. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

NOAA's public Storm Events Database holds decades of severe weather records, but the web interface limits you to one query at a time. This Actor reads the database directly, filtering by event type, U.S. state, and year, and returns every matching storm event in a consistent flat schema. No API key or registration required.

Who uses it	What they scrape NOAA Storm Events Database for
Insurance analysts	Compile historical severe weather claims data by region and event type.
Climate researchers	Build long-term datasets of tornado, hail, or flood frequency for trend analysis.
Emergency managers	Audit past storm impacts in a county to prioritize mitigation funding.
Journalists	Fact-check storm damage and casualty figures for investigative reporting.

What it does

This Actor collects NOAA storm event records by event type, state, and year, and returns each one as a flat row with location, magnitude, casualties, and damage data.

• 🌪️ Event type filter: Choose from 22 categories including Tornado, Hail, Hurricane, Wildfire, and Winter Storm.
• 🗺️ State filter: Limit results to a single U.S. state or pull events from all states and territories.
• 📅 Year selector: Target any year from 1950 to the present, one year per run.
• 📊 Damage and casualty data: Each record includes property damage, crop damage, injuries, and fatalities where reported.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with NOAA Storm Events Database data

🌪️ Build a tornado climatology.

A researcher scrapes all Tornado events for Oklahoma from 1950 to 2023 to map changes in outbreak frequency and track length.

💰 Validate insurance exposure.

An underwriter pulls hail events in Texas for the last five years to cross-check policyholder claims against NOAA's official damage estimates.

📰 Fact-check disaster reporting.

A journalist scrapes Hurricane events for Florida in a given year to verify official fatality and damage figures before publication.

🚨 Audit county-level emergency response.

An emergency manager collects all Flash Flood events in their state for a decade to identify the most frequently impacted counties and justify grant applications.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key needed	Reads the public NOAA database directly with no registration or rate limits.
Fixed flat schema	Every event returns the same fields, ready for analysis or a database load.
Bulk export	Save results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for use in any tool.
Historical depth	Access storm records back to 1950 for long-term studies.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets NOAA Storm Events Database the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	NOAA Storm Events Database Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When NOAA Storm Events Database changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor by selecting an event type, a U.S. state, and a year, and set a maximum number of events to cap the run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the NOAA Storm Events Database Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to NOAA Storm Events Database through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/noaa-storm-events-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your combination of event type, state, and year exists in the database. Some event types are rare in certain states. Try broadening your filters, for example by setting state to 'All' or event type to 'All', and run again.

The run stopped before collecting all events I expected.

You likely hit the 'Maximum storm events' limit you set. Increase that number and rerun. If you did not set a limit, the database may not have more records for your chosen filters.

Some fields are empty in my output.

NOAA does not always populate every field for every event. Missing data is common for older records or less severe events. This is expected and not a scraper error.

The Actor is taking a long time to finish.

Large queries, especially 'All' event types for a full year, can return hundreds of thousands of records. Set a lower max items limit for a faster test run, then scale up when you confirm the output.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What storm event types can I scrape?	You can filter by 22 event types including Tornado, Hail, Thunderstorm Wind, Flash Flood, Hurricane, Winter Storm, Wildfire, Blizzard, Heat, and more. Select 'All' to pull every type in one run.
Can I get data for multiple states at once?	The state filter selects one state per run. To collect data for multiple states, run the Actor once per state and merge the datasets.
How far back does the data go?	The NOAA database starts in 1950. You can set the year input to any value from 1950 up to the current year.
Does this include property and crop damage estimates?	Yes. Each storm event record includes property damage and crop damage figures, along with injuries and fatalities when the database reports them.
Is an API key or NOAA account required?	No. The Actor reads the public NOAA Storm Events Database directly. You do not need to register an application or manage OAuth tokens.
What output formats are supported?	You can export your dataset as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
Can I limit how many events the Actor collects?	Yes. Set the 'Maximum storm events' input to cap the run at a specific number, from 1 up to 1,000,000 records.
Does the Actor handle pagination automatically?	Yes. It follows the database's paging until it reaches your max items limit or exhausts the records for your query.

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Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.