Severe Weather Archive of the Philippines (2010~Present)

Severe Weather Archive of the Philippines (SWAP) is a project that archives the severe weather events focused on Tornadoes, Hails, and Waterspouts with its underlying information within the Philippine Archipelago from 2010 to Present, may extend prior to 2010. Given the lack of severe weather research in the country, most of these data were obtained and compiled from various sources; mainly from news reports/records and their photographic and videographic evidences, eyewitness accounts, including a recent and formal/undergraduate case study by Capuli (2024) on a tornadic event. 

The goal of this project is to map the locations and time of these hazardous weather events, although researching youtube, wikipedia, or any other social media platforms for these information can be difficult for rare or older events, hence sparce. While there is no official source for such data and information in the country, this project through its severe weather documentation hopes to serve as a key starting point on such research field and historical record within the area of interest. Thus, accessible to researchers, policymakers, and the general public.

Furthermore, while the meteorological data can exist and so do the severe weather reports, bouncing back and forth between these two datasets or attempting to unearth evidence of climate links and evolution is a largely manual and tumultuous process. 

In future versions, we are hoping to perform rigorous quality control on these records by attempting to review and verify radar reflectivity and radial velocity scans (assumming availability) and include their respective proximity sounding/vertical profile.