HazardNow Data Sources

Uses

• Historical Disasters by County heatmap and county lookup.
• Validated, versioned county profiles in the Disaster History Atlas.

Cadence

The FEMA heatmap refreshes weekly. Atlas profiles use validated source generations and retain the last-known-good generation when a refresh fails.

Limitations

• FEMA declarations are administrative Stafford Act records; they are not a complete inventory of damaging local events.
• NOAA Storm Events is an observed-event report database whose covered event types and reporting practices change across eras.
• Historical counts are planning context, not a forecast, probability, or overall safety score.

Uses

• Active weather alert cards, map polygons, and the operational NWS alert feed.
• Local temperature, wind, humidity, visibility, and inclement forecast context.
• Weather-related triage signals that point users back to official NWS and local instructions.

Cadence

Refreshed frequently by the dashboard and HazardNow cache process; exact timing can vary by NWS endpoint and region.

Limitations

• NWS alerts can change, expire, or be corrected by the issuing office after HazardNow has displayed a snapshot.
• Geographic filtering is an awareness aid and may not perfectly match every official warning boundary.
• Local conditions depend on nearby stations and may not represent microclimates or conditions at your exact address.

Uses

• Power grid status cards, regional grid-stress labels, outage context, and infrastructure-risk summaries.

Cadence

Refreshed by HazardNow's scheduled cache process. Public operator pages update on their own cadence and may change format without notice.

Limitations

• Grid operator footprints do not cover every U.S. utility or local outage area.
• Outage context may lag utility restoration dashboards and may not identify neighborhood-level impacts.
• Use utility websites and local emergency information for restoration estimates and safety instructions.

Uses

• Internet/cyber dashboard card, cyber tempo summaries, and telecom context as corroborating situational awareness.

Cadence

Varies by public source; refreshed by HazardNow's scheduled cache process and when source data changes.

Limitations

• Cyber tempo is a broad public signal and does not indicate whether your device, account, ISP, or organization is affected.
• Public telecom context is incomplete and may lag official incident reports or provider status pages.
• Use provider, employer, agency, and CISA instructions for specific cyber or communications incidents.

Uses

• Water stress dashboard card, drought context, and infrastructure-readiness summaries.

Cadence

Varies by source. Drought Monitor products update on their publication schedule; streamflow and HazardNow snapshots refresh through scheduled cache processes.

Limitations

• Drought categories are broad area estimates and do not reflect every water system or household well.
• Representative stream gauges may not describe conditions in every watershed; live gauge exceptions are supplemental and are not currently part of the Water Stress score.
• Follow local water agencies for restrictions, boil-water notices, and conservation instructions.