Data Sources
Every event in Disaster Tracker traces back to official or scientific sources. Here is exactly where the data comes from, how often it refreshes, and what each source cannot do.
Contributes
Global earthquakes (M4.5+), magnitude, depth, tsunami evaluation flags.
Refresh
Feed updated continuously; we poll about every 2 minutes.
Limitations
Early magnitude estimates are frequently revised; very recent events may shift or be deleted.
Contributes
Official US weather alerts: tornado, hurricane, flood, heat, winter, fire weather.
Refresh
Active alerts polled about every minute.
Limitations
US-only; alert polygons are not issued for every alert type.
Contributes
Active tropical cyclones: position, intensity, pressure, movement, advisories.
Refresh
Advisories typically every 3-6 hours; we poll every 5 minutes.
Limitations
Western Pacific and Indian Ocean systems come from GDACS instead.
Contributes
Day 1 severe-thunderstorm and tornado categorical outlooks.
Refresh
Outlooks issued about 5x daily; we poll every 15 minutes.
Limitations
Outlooks are forecasts of risk areas, not observed events.
Contributes
Satellite-observed natural events: wildfires, storms, volcanoes, sea ice.
Refresh
Near-real-time; we poll every 5 minutes.
Limitations
Observation-based; event closure can lag reality by days.
Contributes
Global multi-hazard alerts with humanitarian impact levels (Green/Orange/Red).
Refresh
We poll every 10 minutes.
Limitations
Impact models are estimates; alert levels can change between episodes.
Contributes
US federal disaster declarations (major disaster, emergency, fire management).
Refresh
Dataset refreshed by FEMA on a lag; we poll hourly.
Limitations
Declarations follow events, sometimes by days; county-level geography only.
Contributes
Humanitarian disaster records and situation context.
Refresh
We poll every 30 minutes.
Limitations
Country-level positions; editorial pipeline adds latency.
Contributes
Delayed public quotes for the Market Disruption signal (commodities, sector ETFs, indices).
Refresh
About 15-minute delay; polled on demand with caching.
Limitations
Delayed and informational only -- never used as, or presented as, trading data.
Some data sources may be delayed, revised, incomplete, or temporarily offline. The platform does not guarantee that every disaster, warning, or hazard will be detected or displayed.