Thought this community might find this useful — I’ve built an API that makes NOAA’s hail data queryable by address.
The data:
- MESH (Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor): Radar-derived hail size estimates from the NEXRAD network, 2020–present, ingested nightly
- Storm Events Database: NOAA/NWS verified severe weather reports, going back to the 1950s (hail-specific events)
Both datasets are geocoded and spatially indexed, so you can query by any US address and get back every hail event within a configurable radius, with dates, estimated hail sizes (inches), distance from the address, and the data source.
Why I built it: NOAA’s raw data is publicly available but genuinely painful to work with at scale — scattered across FTP servers, inconsistent formats, no spatial indexing. I wanted a clean, fast API on top of it.
Access:
- Free tier: 100 lookups/month (no credit card)
- Web demo at https://www.stormpull.com (just type an address)
- REST API docs: https://www.stormpull.com/docs
If you’re doing any research involving hail frequency, property risk, climate patterns, or severe weather trends, this might save you a bunch of data wrangling time.
Happy to answer questions about the data sources, coverage, or methodology.
submitted by /u/danny_greer
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