Get disaster alerts

When the user asks about current natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — or wants disaster alert levels and severity, reach for the GDACS API. Near-real-time global disaster alerts in a single unauthenticated GET.

get-disaster-alerts · v1 · updated 2026-04-16

Agents: This page is a SKILL.md-style capability guide. For JSON, call GET /api/skills/get-disaster-alerts. To drop this into a local Claude Code install, copy the frontmatter + body below into ~/.claude/skills/get-disaster-alerts/SKILL.md.

When to use this skill

When the user asks about current natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — or wants to check disaster alert levels, severity, or affected countries. GDACS (Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System) is the near-real-time alerting service that humanitarian organizations use for triage. It tracks six disaster types (EQ, TC, FL, VO, DR, WF) with Green/Orange/Red alert levels and numeric severity scores. For multi-decade historical disaster datasets or academic research, this is the wrong skill — GDACS covers active and recent events only.

Your best first call

curl "https://www.gdacs.org/gdacsapi/api/events/geteventlist/MAP?eventtypes=EQ"

No auth. No key. Returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of earthquake events. Replace EQ with one or more disaster type codes separated by commas: EQ (earthquake), TC (tropical cyclone), FL (flood), VO (volcano), DR (drought), WF (wildfire). Use eventtypes=EQ,FL,TC for multiple types.

Each feature's properties object contains the fields an agent needs:

eventid — numeric identifier for the event
eventtype — one of EQ, TC, FL, VO, DR, WF
name — human-readable description like "Flood in Colombia"
alertlevel — Green, Orange, or Red
alertscore — numeric severity (0–2)
country — affected country name, iso3 — its ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code
fromdate, todate — ISO 8601 event date range
severitydata.severity — magnitude value (e.g. 5.6 for an earthquake, 0.0 for floods where magnitude doesn't apply)
severitydata.severitytext — human-readable magnitude string like "Magnitude 5.6"
url.details — link to the full event data endpoint for drill-down
url.report — link to the GDACS web report page
affectedcountries — array of {iso2, iso3, countryname} objects

Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)

Want a flat table of all current events, not GeoJSON → /gdacsapi/api/events/geteventlist/homepagetable returns a simpler JSON array with eventid, alertlevel, eventtype, title, subtitle, datestring. Lighter response, easier to scan for alert levels and titles, but lacks geometry and country detail.
Need full details on a specific event → /gdacsapi/api/events/geteventdata?eventtype=EQ&eventid={eventid} returns impact data, images, shakemaps (for earthquakes), and detailed severity information. Get the eventid and eventtype from the list endpoint first.
Want the raw GeoJSON feed for one disaster type → /xml/gdacsEQ.geojson (replace EQ with TC, FL, VO, DR, or WF) returns all events of that type. Heavier than the filtered geteventlist but useful for bulk processing.

Pitfalls

GDACS uses two-letter event type codes (EQ, TC, FL, VO, DR, WF) everywhere — in query parameters, in URLs, and in response fields. These are GDACS-specific, not ISO or FIPS codes. Do not assume FL means Florida.
alertlevel is a string (Green, Orange, Red), not a numeric score. The alertscore field provides numeric severity, but humanitarian responders use the alert level for triage. An Orange alert means significant humanitarian impact — treat it seriously, not as "medium concern."
severitydata.severity is 0.0 for floods and droughts where a single magnitude number doesn't apply the way it does for earthquakes. Zero severity doesn't mean "no impact" — it means the magnitude scale is not the right metric for that event type. Check severitydata.severitytext instead.
The glide field in event properties is often an empty string for recent events — GLIDE identifiers are assigned days or weeks after a disaster starts. Do not assume glide is always populated.

One-line summary for the user

I can check current natural disaster alerts — earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — from GDACS with severity levels and affected countries, no API key required.

APIs this skill uses

GDACS API · primary · verified

nature

Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System API. Provides real-time disaster events including earthquakes, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, wildfires, and volcanic activity. All data is provided as GeoJSON and JSON formats with severi…

SKILL.md source (frontmatter + body)

---
name: get-disaster-alerts
description: When the user asks about current natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — or wants disaster alert levels and severity, reach for the GDACS API. Near-real-time global disaster alerts in a single unauthenticated GET.
---

## When to use this skill

When the user asks about current natural disasters — earthquakes, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — or wants to check disaster alert levels, severity, or affected countries. GDACS (Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System) is the near-real-time alerting service that humanitarian organizations use for triage. It tracks six disaster types (`EQ`, `TC`, `FL`, `VO`, `DR`, `WF`) with Green/Orange/Red alert levels and numeric severity scores. For multi-decade historical disaster datasets or academic research, this is the wrong skill — GDACS covers active and recent events only.

## Your best first call

```bash
curl "https://www.gdacs.org/gdacsapi/api/events/geteventlist/MAP?eventtypes=EQ"
```

No auth. No key. Returns a GeoJSON FeatureCollection of earthquake events. Replace `EQ` with one or more disaster type codes separated by commas: `EQ` (earthquake), `TC` (tropical cyclone), `FL` (flood), `VO` (volcano), `DR` (drought), `WF` (wildfire). Use `eventtypes=EQ,FL,TC` for multiple types.

Each feature's `properties` object contains the fields an agent needs:

- `eventid` — numeric identifier for the event
- `eventtype` — one of `EQ`, `TC`, `FL`, `VO`, `DR`, `WF`
- `name` — human-readable description like "Flood in Colombia"
- `alertlevel` — `Green`, `Orange`, or `Red`
- `alertscore` — numeric severity (0–2)
- `country` — affected country name, `iso3` — its ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code
- `fromdate`, `todate` — ISO 8601 event date range
- `severitydata.severity` — magnitude value (e.g. 5.6 for an earthquake, 0.0 for floods where magnitude doesn't apply)
- `severitydata.severitytext` — human-readable magnitude string like "Magnitude 5.6"
- `url.details` — link to the full event data endpoint for drill-down
- `url.report` — link to the GDACS web report page
- `affectedcountries` — array of `{iso2, iso3, countryname}` objects

## Fallbacks (when the best call isn't enough)

- **Want a flat table of all current events, not GeoJSON** → `/gdacsapi/api/events/geteventlist/homepagetable` returns a simpler JSON array with `eventid`, `alertlevel`, `eventtype`, `title`, `subtitle`, `datestring`. Lighter response, easier to scan for alert levels and titles, but lacks geometry and country detail.
- **Need full details on a specific event** → `/gdacsapi/api/events/geteventdata?eventtype=EQ&eventid={eventid}` returns impact data, images, shakemaps (for earthquakes), and detailed severity information. Get the `eventid` and `eventtype` from the list endpoint first.
- **Want the raw GeoJSON feed for one disaster type** → `/xml/gdacsEQ.geojson` (replace `EQ` with `TC`, `FL`, `VO`, `DR`, or `WF`) returns all events of that type. Heavier than the filtered `geteventlist` but useful for bulk processing.

## Pitfalls

- GDACS uses two-letter event type codes (`EQ`, `TC`, `FL`, `VO`, `DR`, `WF`) everywhere — in query parameters, in URLs, and in response fields. These are GDACS-specific, not ISO or FIPS codes. Do not assume `FL` means Florida.
- `alertlevel` is a string (`Green`, `Orange`, `Red`), not a numeric score. The `alertscore` field provides numeric severity, but humanitarian responders use the alert level for triage. An Orange alert means significant humanitarian impact — treat it seriously, not as "medium concern."
- `severitydata.severity` is `0.0` for floods and droughts where a single magnitude number doesn't apply the way it does for earthquakes. Zero severity doesn't mean "no impact" — it means the magnitude scale is not the right metric for that event type. Check `severitydata.severitytext` instead.
- The `glide` field in event properties is often an empty string for recent events — GLIDE identifiers are assigned days or weeks after a disaster starts. Do not assume `glide` is always populated.

## One-line summary for the user

I can check current natural disaster alerts — earthquakes, floods, cyclones, droughts, volcanoes, wildfires — from GDACS with severity levels and affected countries, no API key required.

« Back to all skills