Frequently Asked Questions

NWS Indianapolis Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question not listed here? Contact us via email: w-ind.webmaster@noaa.gov

1. Certified data to be used in legal proceedings:

You must go to the National Climatic Data Center, http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ to get the data.

2. High Temperature, Low Temperature, Rainfall, Snowfall, Highest winds, etc. for Indianapolis?

Data back to 1996 for the Indianapolis International Airport can be found at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/local_cli.php Near the top of the page, choose the month and year you are interested in
Data back to 2003 can also be found at: http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=ind
Extremes, Normals, etc. can be found at: http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ind

3. High Temperature, Low Temperature, Rainfall, Snowfall, Highest winds, etc. for other cities in Central Indiana besides Indianapolis?

Data back to early 2007 for several cities across Central Indiana can be found at http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=ind
Choose “Preliminary Climatology Data (CF6), the location, then the time frame you want .
Data from this month or last month from Cooperative Weather Stations (high, low, precipitation) is available at: http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ind
Normals, Extremes, and more data for sites across Central Indiana are also available at http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ind
Additional data may be found at the Indiana State Climate Office’s data search: http://www.agry.purdue.edu/climate/data_archive_Dev12.asp

4. Climate data for locations outside of Indiana?

Data for the Midwest can be found at the Midwest Climate Data Center, http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/
Data for any state as well as some locations outside the USA can be found at the National Climatic Data Center,
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ncdc.html

5. Severe Weather reports (hail, wind, tornado) for past events?

Data older than about 4 months ago can be found at: http://www4.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-win/wwcgi.dll?wwEvent~Storms
Often there will be an archived NWS News Story about a recent event. Archived news stories can be found at: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_archive.php?wfo=ind
Archived severe weather reports from around the USA can be found at the Storm Prediction Center:
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/archive/

1. Do I need to preregister for the storm training sessions?

2. About how long do the sessions last?

3. Do I have to live / be a spotter in the county that I take the training session?

Can I or my group take a tour of the NWS office?

1. What weather radio transmitter covers my county

A map of weather radio transmitter areas can be found at: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/?n=nwrimage

2. What codes do I need to program in for my weather radio?

The county codes for each weather radio can be found on our weather radio page: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/nwr.php#xmtrs Click on the transmitter serves your county (see previous question above)

3. What is the current status of the weather radio transmitter that serves my area?

4. When can I test my weather radio?

Weather radio tests are conducted by the Indianapolis office every Wednesday between 11:00 AM and Noon. Please note that every weather radio does not react the same to the weekly test.

5. What items are alerted on the weather radio?

6. Can I listen to the broadcast on the web?

Streaming audio is not available. However, you can listen to individual current routine products: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ind/?n=nwrlisten

1. Where is tornado alley located?

There are different ways to create maps of tornado alley, the area of relatively high tornado occurrence in the USA, depending on the factors you consider. Dr. Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory has derived an image based on the number of tornado days per year from 1980-1999.