HISTORICAL EVENT INTELLIGENCE · TORNADO
Tornado Data
106,000+ US tornado records from 2014 to present — EF ratings, footprints, timing, and population exposure, 99.6% enhanced. Download a free sample, license the full dataset, or stream it live by API.
What's in the dataset
Event-level tornado records — the strongest-covered peril in DisasterAWARE's 546,000-record historical hazard archive.
EF rating
Where NWS damage surveys assigned one — ratings come from surveyed paths, never inferred
Footprints & coordinates
Every record has lat/lon; alert-polygon geometry is near-complete from 2019 onward (≥97% from 2023)
Timing
Start and end timestamps for every record
Hail & wind observations
Measured hail size and wind gusts where observations exist — never zero-filled
Casualties
NWS-based fatality counts via the tornado enhancement layer
Population & economic exposure
Modeled exposure inside each footprint — who and what the event could touch
Honest counting note: these are event records — the warning, watch, and confirmed-event trail storms leave — not a deduplicated tornado list, and detection density improves across the archive. For risk work that's a feature: it measures how often a place was credibly threatened, alongside what was confirmed. Why the report-vs-footprint distinction matters →
Start with a real sample
Eight surveyed events from the April–May 2024 Kansas outbreak sequence — free, no signup.
The sample covers April 26 – May 7, 2024 — the same continental pattern that produced the Elkhorn–Blair EF-3 near Omaha — as CSV and GeoJSON with a README describing every field. It is the exact structure full datasets ship in.
Tornado data by place
Live risk scores, current alerts, and event history for 1,600+ US and international locations.
Watching something right now? Live tornado activity shows what the feed is tracking this hour, and the Tornado Intelligence page covers the full detection-to-decision pipeline.
Two ways to get it
The same tornado records, served for history or for right now.
Historical datasets
Bulk exports filtered to your geography, date range, and rating threshold — CSV, GeoJSON, or NDJSON, by subscription or one-time purchase.
Historical Event Intelligence →Real-time tornado API
Tornado warnings and events as they are issued, with footprints and exposure — the live end of the same record structure.
Event Intelligence API →Tornado Data — FAQ
Where can I download historical tornado data?
DisasterAWARE offers a free tornado dataset sample — eight surveyed events from the April–May 2024 Kansas outbreak sequence — as CSV and GeoJSON with no signup, from the sample datasets page. Full historical tornado datasets, filtered to your geography and date range, are licensed through Historical Event Intelligence.
What does the tornado dataset contain?
106,000+ US tornado records from 2014 to present, 99.6% carrying the enhancement layer: EF ratings where NWS surveys assigned them, warning and event footprints (near-complete geometry from 2019 onward), timing, hail and wind observations where measured, NWS-based fatality counts, and modeled population and economic exposure. Every record has coordinates; formats are CSV, GeoJSON, and NDJSON.
Is there a tornado data API?
Yes — two. The Event Intelligence API streams live tornado warnings and events as they are issued, and Historical Event Intelligence serves the historical archive by query — by state, county, radius around a point, EF rating, date range, or exposure threshold.
Are these counts of actual tornadoes?
They are event records — the warning, watch, and confirmed-event trail a storm leaves — not a deduplicated list of tornadoes, and detection density improves over the archive. That distinction is deliberate: for risk work, how often a location was credibly threatened matters alongside how often a funnel touched down. Survey-confirmed path ratings are carried where the NWS assigned them.
How current is the tornado data?
Live tornado activity flows through the real-time feed continuously. The historical archive's enhancement layer (ratings, exposure, observations) is refreshed on a rolling cycle that currently runs within weeks of real time.