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The Natural Hazards Support System (NHSS) allows users to monitor and analyze current natural hazards events in the United States and around the world. This capability is provided by integrating various types of dynamic near-real-time data with geospatial base data and generating a single geospatial map. This map can be used as a current view of events but is not appropriate for use in historical or forecast applications since it does not contain historical or trend information. In addition, this application contains data from a wide-variety of data providers that each have their own content and accuracy standards so it should not be used to perform detailed impact analysis. Please also refer to the Disclaimers.

Each of the dynamic data layers in NHSS provide both current location information for the associated features and also supports access to more specific feature information by simply clicking on a map feature. Clicking on a map feature will include general feature information for all of the near-by features as well as the ability to access even more detailed information for any single feature by simply clicking on the linked attribute value.

More detailed information about each of NHSS' data layers, including the location of the original source data and the NHSS update schedule (if appropriate) is provided below. Although each of these layers is available for use in NHSS, the extent of the layer may be limited to just the United States.

This layer contains stream station locations that have been classified as being at "Above Flood Stage" based on information provided by the USGS WaterWatch. This program provides access to the water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico by the USGS Real-Time Water Data for the Nation. Surface-water data, such as gage height (stage) and streamflow (discharge), are collected at major rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Ground-water data, such as water level, are collected at wells and springs.

Real-time data typically are recorded at 15-60 minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events. NHSS updates this information every hour.

Information about active volcanoes in the United States is derived from the Recent Volcano Observatory Activity Reports generated by the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. NHSS retrieves this information every 12 hours and uses it to refresh the features in the U.S. Volcanoes layer.

The USGS Volcano Hazards Program monitors active and potentially active volcanoes, assesses their hazards, responds to volcanic crises, and conducts research on how volcanoes work to fulfill a Congressional mandate (P.L. 93-288) that the USGS issue "timely warnings" of potential volcanic hazards to responsible emergency-management authorities and to the populace affected.

Other Volcanoes contains all of the active volcanoes that occur outside of the United States. NHSS derives this information from the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report generated as a cooperative project between the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program and the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. NHSS updates this layer once a week shortly after the weekly update of the source report.

Notices of volcanic activity posted in the Weekly Volcanic Activity Report are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail.

The source for the global earthquakes contained in NHSS is the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. NHSS uses the earthquake feed generated by this program that has global earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 2.5 that have occurred in the past seven days. This information is retrieved by NHSS every 10 minutes and used to refresh the data in the Earthquakes layer.

The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program provides several alternative ways to obtain real-time, worldwide earthquake lists. Earthquake information is extracted from a merged catalog of earthquakes located by the USGS and contributing networks. Earthquakes will be broadcast within a few minutes for California events, and within 30-minutes for world-wide events.

Hurricanes in NHSS are derived from storm information generated by NOAA's National Weather Service(NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHSS retrieves current tropical storm information for the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific every 12 hours and uses it to update the Hurricane layer.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is a component of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) located at Florida International University in Miami, Florida.

The Wildfires layer in NHSS displays large active fire incidents that have been entered into the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) database. This layer is generated and maintained as part of the GeoMAC application, and incidentally accessed by NHSS.

The database used to populate this layer is maintained in Kansas City and updated every morning and includes general information about each fire.

NHSS also uses the Wildfire Perimeters that are generated for the GeoMAC application. This layer contains fire perimeters that are updated as data is made available by field offices, usually every one or two days.

Perimeters are collected in the field by a variety of means, including infrared flights, and by using a GPS unit to map the perimeter. This layer only displays perimeter data that has been submitted by field offices, and since data is not received for all fires, you may not be able to view perimeters for every fire.

The source for the ShakeMaps contained in NHSS is the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program. NHSS only displays the earthquake ShakeMaps that have been generated in the last 7 days. This information is retrieved by NHSS every 15 minutes and used to refresh the data in the ShakeMaps layer.

ShakeMap is a product of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program in conjunction with regional seismic network operators. ShakeMap sites provide near-real-time maps of ground motion and shaking intensity following significant earthquakes. These maps are used by federal, state, and local organizations, both public and private, for post-earthquake response and recovery, public and scientific information, as well as for preparedness exercises and disaster planning.

The NHSS provides two separate data layers containing weather information, Watches/Warnings and Alerts/Advisories. These layers contain all of the current weather watches, warnings, alerts, and advisories that have been issued by NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS). NHSS derives this information from experimental feeds generated by the NWS, and retrieves these feeds every 10 minutes to update the information in the layers.

NHSS uses the same Map Colors that were developed by the NWS.

This layer contains stream station locations that provide access to the water-resources data collected at approximately 1.5 million sites in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico by the USGS Real-Time Water Data for the Nation. Surface-water data, such as gage height (stage) and streamflow (discharge), are collected at major rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Ground-water data, such as water level, are collected at wells and springs.

Real-time data typically are recorded at 15-60 minute intervals, stored onsite, and then transmitted to USGS offices every 1 to 4 hours, depending on the data relay technique used. Recording and transmission times may be more frequent during critical events. NHSS updates this information every hour.

The Stream Gage symbology represents streamflow conditions as a percentile class, which is computed from the period of record for the current day of the year. Only stations with at least 30 years of record are ranked (i.e. classified).

This layer displays the locations of Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) that are maintained by Federal and State agencies for the purpose of environmental monitoring. Each of these stations allow the NHSS user to access all of the current conditions associated with a particular location, including reported weather conditions, such as temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed.

The information stored for each station is updated once an hour, on the half-hour, and is maintained for the previous 24 hours.

The Federal Lands layer in NHSS displays the locations of land in the United States managed by Federal agencies. This is a static layer that is stored and maintained at the Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center (RMGSC).

The Tide Stations layer in NHSS contains the locations for all of the various monitoring and observation stations from NOAA's National Data Buoy Center. Each of these stations provides the NHSS user with direct access to the current conditions at a specific location. And although the exact type of information may vary based on station type, this can include current wind data and wave height.

The FEMA Disaster Declarations and Recovery Centers in NHSS are map services provided by FEMA showing current information on Federally Declared Disaster Counties and Disaster Recovery Centers.

The NEXRAD (Next Generation Radar) data in NHSS is an OGC WMS from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet Iowa State University Department of Agronomy showing current radar data for precipitation and wind.

This information is intended for users with a basic understanding of GIS and the uses of either Web Mapping Services (WMS) or ArcGIS REST services. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.

Three map services were created for use in the NHSS, and each of these services is also publicly available for use by other Geographic Information Systems (GIS).