National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

NWS Indianapolis Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Past Weather Data. Where can I find?:
  2. Storm Spotter Training Questions
  3. Can I or my group take a tour of the NWS Indianapolis office?

     
  4. Weather Radio Questions
  5. Miscellaneous Questions

Have a question not listed here? Contact us via email: nws.indianapolis@noaa.gov

Past Weather Data: Where Can I find?

1. Certified data to be used in legal proceedings:

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

 

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

4. Climate data for locations outside of Indiana?

  • Data for the Midwest can be found at the Midwest Climate Data Center, https://mrcc.purdue.edu/
  • Data for any state as well as some locations outside the USA can be found at the National Centers for Environmental Information,
    https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/

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

 

Storm Spotter Questions

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

  • No, unless the particular event says it is needed or it is a virtual/online session.  All you need to do is arrive at the proper location and time

2. About how long do the sessions last?

  • Approximately 2 hours

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

  • No. The training sessions cover the same material at each location.

4. What is my spotter ID or how do I get one?

  • We do not utilize spotter IDs at our office.  When you make your report, please identify that you are a trained spotter (assuming you attended training).

 

Tours

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

 

Weather Radio Questions

1. What weather radio transmitter covers my county?

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: https://www.weather.gov/ind/nwr#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?

  • To check the status or report an outage, please visit the NWR Outage Page.

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?

 

Miscellaneous Questions

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.