Some NOAA NCEI websites, systems down due to Helene devastation in Asheville, NC | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage like that seen here on September 28, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida's Big Bend on September 26 with winds up to 140 mph and storm surges. As of October 2, the reported death toll from Helene was more than 160 people across several states, which is expected to increase. (Image credit: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

UPDATED 2:45 p.m. EDT, 10/04/24

The devastation that Hurricane Helene caused in Asheville, NC, and surrounding areas has significantly impacted operations at NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, www.ncei.noaa.gov).

A number of NCEI’s websites and systems are down, and at present, NOAA does not have a timeline for when they will be fully back up and running again. Work to restore affected sites and systems is underway. Some data products used by other websites, such as Climate.gov and Drought.gov, are also being affected. (Please note: NOAA’s weather.gov and weather forecasting products are not affected by this partial outage.)

All archived data at NCEI is currently inaccessible, and limited new data is being ingested. We are working with our partners to minimize the risk of any potential data loss; however, Helene has made many key products and services unavailable at this time. The products impacted include access to NCEI’s past weather and climate data.

NCEI’s monthly State of the Climate reports and data will be be delayed until services are restored, which will have implications for both the public and private sectors, including agriculture, energy, retail, reinsurance, transportation and media. These reports and data rely on expert analysis from a team of dedicated staff, who are all personally impacted by the disaster. The September 2024 U.S. and global climate reports, originally scheduled to be released on October 8 and 10 respectively, will be delayed. At this time, we do not have more specifics on when they might be available.

We appreciate your patience while our teams restore our systems and are sorry for the inconvenience.

Our thoughts are with the people of western North Carolina, including affected NOAA staff, and all of those who are dealing with the unprecedented aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

Media contact

John Bateman, [email protected], (202) 424-0929