Download raw NEXRAD Level II radar volume scans for a station and date from AWS Open Data
domain: noaa-nexrad-level2.s3.amazonaws.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
List objects under the year/month/day/station prefix (e.g. 2026/07/09/KTLX/) in the S3 bucket to find files for the target radar site.
Note that as of September 1, 2025 the legacy noaa-nexrad-level2 bucket stopped receiving new archive uploads; newer archive data is published to the unidata-nexrad-level2 bucket instead.
Download the desired volume-scan file(s), which are gzip-compressed Level II files.
Decode with a radar library (e.g. Py-ART, MetPy) that understands the Archive Level II format.
Cross-check the station's operational status/coverage if an expected file is missing (site outages, maintenance).
Known gotchas
Confirm which bucket (legacy noaa-nexrad-level2 vs. unidata-nexrad-level2) currently holds the date range you need — the September 2025 cutover changed the archive location.
Files are organized by radar site 4-letter ICAO ID, not by state/region — you must already know the station ID.
No authentication is required for the public bucket, but heavy bulk downloads still count against your own AWS request/transfer costs if pulled through a paying AWS account.
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