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Home / CATs About
How to use PLRB Catastrophe Services
Maps & Apps Portal
PLRB Catastrophe Services has created a Maps & Applications Portal utilizing the latest technology from Esri. The smaller focused apps are intended to allow the user to find information quickly and easily. View maps and search our large database of severe weather and catastrophe geospatial data. PLRB will continue to create new web apps and refine existing web apps. PLRB has created web apps for:- Current Weather & Forecasts
- Earthquakes
- Hail Research
- Hail Research
- Hail Risk Analysis
- Historical RADAR Viewer
- Hurricane Florence (2018)
- Hurricane Harvey (2017)
- Hurricane Ida (2021)
- Hurricane Ian (2022)
- Hurricane Irma (2017)
- Hurricane Laura (2020)
- Hurricane Matthew (2016)
- Hurricane Michael (2018)
- Power Outage Research
- Risks and Hazards
- Tornado Risk Analysis
- Watches and Warnings Research
- Wildfires
- Wind/Tornado Research
- Zika Virus Transmission
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One-Stop Weather Data
Designed to quickly and easily retrieve all of PLRB’s weather/CAT data for a particular address and date range. Simply enter an address and click Locate, then enter a date range and click Search. Any severe weather reports (tornadoes, hail, wind) and other storm reports (flood, freezing rain, debris flows) within 20 miles of the address; weather observation station data within 20 miles of the address; lightning data; observed precipitation; snowfall analysis; historical watches/warnings/advisories; fire smoke analysis; earthquake ShakeMaps will be listed.For a brief video tutorial see the following video tutorial.
For an in-depth list of catastrophe data that PLRB archives please see the following PDF document.
![](https://www.plrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/howtouse_one-stop.jpg)
Lightning Data
Designed to more quickly and easily determine if lightning existed in the area of a claimant, this web page is specifically designed for researching lightning probability and general areas of lightning detected by satellite. Simply enter an address and click Locate, then enter a date range and click Search.![](https://www.plrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/howtouse_lightning.jpg)
Power Outage Reports
Catastrophe Services has teamed with Gridmetrics to provide historical power outage reports via their Power Event Notification System (PENS). PENS power sensors are tightly aligned with population density and cover many metro, urban, and suburban areas of the United States. Gridmetrics offers the most comprehensive, independent, real-time, hyper-local view of the power distribution grid, today covering ~150m people in the US. Please click here to view a sample report.![](https://www.plrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/howtouse_power.png)
Current Weather >> Hurricanes & Tropical Cyclones
PLRB provides information regarding active storm systems that may threaten U.S. interests including any active watches or warnings, state of emergency documents, links to National Weather Service forecast maps and advisories, and a storm log which summarizes past watches and warnings.Current Weather >> Severe Storm and Occurrence Summary (SSOS)
View a text list of the previous day’s (spans 24-hour period from 6AM CST previous day to 6AM CST current day) severe weather reports. You may also view maps and download GIS shapefiles of the reports from the dropdown list. To subscribe to the receive the daily SSOS email please contact Andrew Louchios at alouchios@plrb.org.![](https://www.plrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/howtouse_ssos.jpg)
Current Weather >> Threats Assessment
The Threats Overview summarizes the threats for the next few days into one web page. View maps regarding severe weather potential, wildland fire potential, winter weather, tropical weather, and more. Links to NWS GIS and KML files are provided as well. To subscribe to the receive the daily Threats Assessment email please contact Andrew Louchios at alouchios@plrb.org.Major Events Archive
Information and links to major events such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, riots, etc.Static Maps
Maps regarding current weather, current lightning probability, current occurrence tracking map, and surface analysis map.Request Weather Data
If you prefer not to use the mapping applications, PLRB Catastrophe Services can conduct an address specific search for all meteorological phenomena, including but not limited to: lightning probability, nearest reports of hail, high wind (greater than 58 MPH) / wind damage, tornadoes, and precipitation. Please allow five business days.Reference
Links to reference materials and online training videos.Reference >> Occurrence Numbers
View a list of PLRB’s active and inactive occurrence numbers. PLRB assigns an occurrence number to a frontal system’s severe weather reports as well as individual incidents such as large explosions, fires, and earthquakes (if damage is reported).![](https://www.plrb.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/howtouse_occ.jpg)