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• This paper presents a unique dataset that brings together data from meteorological sources on weather anomalies and night light emissions in 0.5 by 0.5-degree grid cells for the entire globe for the period 1992-2013. • This dataset allows researchers to investigate the economic impact of weather anomalies at an unprecedented geographical resolution. • We find that storms, excessive precipitation and cold spells indeed reduce the growth of economic activity visibly in the emission of night light at the local level. • We also show these negative effects do not tend to last long and generally cause positive spillovers in neighboring areas. How do weather anomalies affect the economy at the local level? This paper presents a new data set that links weather data to annual average night-light emission data for 24.000 0.5° × 0.5° grid-cells around the globe for the period 1992–2013. Interpreting night-light emission as a proxy for economic activity, these data allow one to investigate how weather anomalies affect economic activity. Global coverage avoids selection bias, while high spatial resolution avoids averaging out heterogeneity in local impacts at higher aggregation levels. Our data show significant effects on the local growth of night-light for storms, excessive precipitation, droughts, and cold spells. Moreover, we find evidence for significant spatial spillovers to neighboring areas. Our results suggest that these offsetting spillovers are typically local. As positive and negative effects average out in larger areas, our results call for the analysis of economic effects of weather anomalies at a high geographical resolution. Finally, our results are driven by events in lower income regions. As climate change is expected to make weather patterns more erratic, our new data can inform emerging debates on how this will affect the economy in both science and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]