National Severe Weather Warnings Archive

Access to an archive of NSWWS reports

You can view past National Severe Weather Warnings in our Digital Library & Archive.

Warnings for the current year are catalogued at the end of each month once all the warnings have been issued and will made available as soon as possible, early in the following month. Our warnings archive dates back to March 2011. If you require a recent warning which has not yet been added to our Digital Library and Archive please contact our enquiries team on [email protected] who will provide the warning to you if available.

You can also search for specific warnings in our online catalogue.

You can get a full listing of everything catalogued to date by entering "NSWWS" in the search bar and click on search:

For more specific searches you can narrow down your results by selecting from a range of dfferent elements displayed on the left hand side of the screen  - such a date, warning colour, element or region.

 

You can click on the title to display the full catalogue record or click on the online link to view the original warning in PDF format in our digital library & archive.

Warnings contain some key elements all of which can be selected to narrow down your search.

Colour: Red, Amber, Yellow

Weather: Rain, Thunderstorm, Wind, Snow, Lightning, Ice, Fog, Extreme Heat

Regions: 

  • Orkney & Shetland
  • Highlands & Eilean Siar
  • Grampian
  • Central,Tayside & Fife,
  • Strathclyde
  • SW Scotland, Lothian Borders
  • Northern Ireland
  • Northwest England
  • Northeast England
  • Yorkshire & Humber
  • West Midlands
  • East Midlands
  • East of England
  • South West England
  • London & South East England
  • Wales
  • Scotland
  • England

Folder and File Structure within the Digital Archive

When you link through to the digital archive you will be taken to the folder for the month and year that the specific warning falls into.

Folder Structure:

Year > month > day (date original warning was issued).

The file names begin with a unique code of letters and numbers. Any updates to a particular warning will also begin with this same code and will be catalogued in the same folder as the original warning.

The endings of each file name indicate the date/time it was issued/updated and the kind of warning: Y for yellow, A for amber, R for red and SnIc for snow and ice, Wi for wind, Ra for rain, etc.

For example, a warning for snow issued on 1st Jan 2025 (NSWWS_cb7ef0b6-e44c-4abd-b868-e27d1fd5dd64_20250101_1112_Y_Sn) is in folder 20250101. The two updates to this warning on 2nd and 5th Jan (the date of impact) are also in this folder and begin with the same string of numbers and letters. The endings indicate the new dates/time of issue and, in this case, that the warning is now for snow and ice.

  • NSWWS_cb7ef0b6-e44c-4abd-b868-e27d1fd5dd64_20250102_1106_Y_SnIc
  • NSWWS_cb7ef0b6-e44c-4abd-b868-e27d1fd5dd64_20250105_0351_Y_SnIc

 

Please see the guide to warnings  for more information about how to interpret the information contained within a warning.

 You can email the library & archive if you have a question about our NSWWS archive.