What NOAA actually tells you about your county

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes an enormous amount of publicly available data. Most people don't know it exists. Here's a map of what's useful and how to access it.

NOAA Weather Alerts

The National Weather Service issues alerts at the county level. The full alert feed is available as a public API at api.weather.gov. You don't need an account or API key. Every active watch, warning, and advisory for every US county is queryable in real time. Get Ready uses this feed as a primary source for weather-category findings.

NOAA Storm Events Database

The Storm Events Database (ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents) contains records of significant weather events back to 1950, indexed by county. This is how you answer questions like: "How often does my county get tornadoes?" and "What were the historical ice storm durations?" The Area Study's Climate & Natural Hazards section pulls from this database.

Flood maps

FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program publishes flood zone maps for every US jurisdiction. The relevant tool is the Flood Map Service Center (msc.fema.gov). You can look up any address and determine its flood zone designation. Zone AE is 100-year flood risk; Zone X is minimal risk. This matters enormously for property decisions and emergency planning.

The limitations

NOAA data is excellent for weather and climate. It doesn't cover crime, infrastructure condition, healthcare capacity, or social factors. An Area Study synthesizes NOAA with 13 other categories precisely because no single agency has the complete picture.