The development of a storm damage estimate calculator

Since its formal inception in 1959, Storm Data has served as the National Weather Service's (NWS) official collection of severe and unusual weather events. Included in Storm Data are various attributes of the events including, but not limited to, location, duration, magnitude, and impact. As the hydrometeorological community looks to better understand the socio-economic impacts of hazardous weather events, there is a growing need for the NWS to enhance the property and crop damage information logged in Storm Data as part of the event's impacts.

To better suit the needs of the users of Storm Data, the NWS is currently undergoing a modernization of the Storm Data collection program, StormDat. As part of this modernization, a damage estimate calculator will be added to the program to assist NWS forecasters in more accurately estimating property and crop damages associated with hazardous weather events.

The presentation includes an overview of the damage estimate calculator, including the project's background, how the NWS collaborated with users of Storm Data to develop requirements for the calculator, applied uses for the enhanced storm damage estimate data, and a look to the future on how the NWS plans to improve the data reliability, usefulness, and accuracy.