Tornadoes are among the most destructive natural hazards in North America, with the vast majority occurring in the United States. Each year, the U.S. experiences over 1,000 tornadoes, resulting in approximately $1 billion in damages, over 1,500 injuries, and around 80 fatalities.
DisasterAWARE provides real-time monitoring and impact analysis to help organizations anticipate and respond to these fast-moving threats. Our platform integrates authoritative data from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), Canada’s Meteorological Service, and other trusted sources to deliver accurate and timely tornado intelligence.
With advanced alerting, severity modeling, and exposure analysis, DisasterAWARE empowers emergency managers, insurers, and business continuity leaders to protect assets and ensure operational resilience when seconds count.
When a tornado is detected, DisasterAWARE automatically generates a Situational Awareness Report to provide a clear, actionable snapshot of the threat. Each report includes:
These reports are automatically updated with every significant change to the tornado’s characteristics—such as a shift in location or an updated track—ensuring users have the most current information at all times.
DisasterAWARE uses the severity classifications provided directly by the authoritative issuing agency, ensuring consistency with the standards of the region where the tornado threat is occurring. These agencies include the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and others.
Indicates that conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes in or near the watch area. Watches usually cover a broad region and provide advance notice of potential tornado activity. Users should remain alert and review emergency protocols.
Indicates that a tornado has been visually confirmed or detected by radar and is either occurring or imminent. Warnings are specific to affected areas and timeframes and call for immediate protective action.
DisasterAWARE continuously monitors for updates from these agencies. Any change in severity—such as an escalation from watch to warning—automatically triggers a new alert, updated exposure analysis, and refreshed situational awareness products.
DisasterAWARE provides notification and exposure areas as defined by the issuing authoritative agency, such as the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS), Environment Canada, or Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. To reduce alert fatigue and improve clarity, DisasterAWARE intelligently clusters related messages from multiple forecast officeswithin the same agency when they refer to the same tornado event. This allows users to receive a unified alert, even when the hazard spans multiple jurisdictions.
Based on the official SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) codes or equivalent regional standards, these define where alerts are actively pushed to users.
Represent zones at risk from the tornado. Exposure is further classified by severity—Moderate, Strong, or Severe—depending on the threat level. DisasterAWARE normalizes these severity levels across all supported agencies, providing a consistent experience for users regardless of the source.
This approach ensures organizations receive accurate, consolidated, and easy-to-act-on intelligence, even when hazards are reported by multiple regional authorities.
DisasterAWARE includes powerful Asset Protection tools that help organizations monitor how hazards—such as wildfires—affect the people, places, and infrastructure they care about most.
Once loaded, assets can be viewed in two ways: through the Notification Panel, or by enabling their associated map service layer under the User folder in the Layers Panel.Assets can be user-owned or shared at the organization level. Organizations with multiple teams can also set up Sub-Organizations, each with their own asset classes and notification rules—providing flexibility in how asset data is managed and accessed across departments.
For each asset class, users can define non-user contacts—such as building managers or emergency coordinators—who should receive notifications when a hazard threatens specific locations. These contacts receive email alerts with detailed hazard information, ensuring they stay informed even if they don’t actively use the platform.
These features help organizations stay ahead of emerging threats, understand the geographic relationship between hazards and their assets, and quantify their total exposure—supporting faster, more informed decisions during critical moments.
These layers allow users to quickly assess who and what is at risk, enabling faster, more informed decisions during tornado events.
All tornado-related hazard intelligence available in DisasterAWARE is also accessible through our Data as a Service (DaaS) API, enabling seamless integration into your own systems, dashboards, and workflows.
In addition, specific map layers—such as Doppler radar, forecast models, and critical infrastructure—can be made available via API upon request.
Whether you’re building internal tools or delivering services to your own customers, DisasterAWARE’s API ensures you have trusted, operational-grade hazard data at your fingertips.