diff --git a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.10.0.rst b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.10.0.rst
index f4368de6f2..f7ad2b7d7c 100644
--- a/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.10.0.rst
+++ b/docs/sphinx/source/whatsnew/v0.10.0.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ Breaking changes
   :py:func:`pvlib.singlediode._lambertw_v_from_i` to match
   :py:func:`pvlib.pvsystem.singlediode`.
   (:issue:`1718`, :pull:`1719`)
+* Map wind direction to `wind_direction` instead of `wind_dir` in
+  :py:func:`pvlib.iotools.read_srml` and
+  :py:func:`pvlib.iotools.read_srml_month_from_solardat` (:pull:`1773`)
 * :func:`~pvlib.iotools.get_pvgis_tmy` and :func:`~pvlib.iotools.read_pvgis_tmy`
   now rename columns to standard pvlib names by default (``map_variables=True``)
   (:pull:`1772`)
@@ -23,7 +26,8 @@ Deprecations
 
 Enhancements
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
+* Added `map_variables` parameter to :py:func:`pvlib.iotools.read_srml`
+  and :py:func:`pvlib.iotools.read_srml_month_from_solardat` (:pull:`1773`)
 
 Bug fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/pvlib/iotools/srml.py b/pvlib/iotools/srml.py
index 397a7bd612..6e7675482c 100644
--- a/pvlib/iotools/srml.py
+++ b/pvlib/iotools/srml.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     '100': 'ghi',
     '201': 'dni',
     '300': 'dhi',
-    '920': 'wind_dir',
+    '920': 'wind_direction',
     '921': 'wind_speed',
     '930': 'temp_air',
     '931': 'temp_dew',
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 }
 
 
-def read_srml(filename):
+def read_srml(filename, map_variables=True):
     """
     Read University of Oregon SRML 1min .tsv file into pandas dataframe.  The
     SRML is described in [1]_.
@@ -33,13 +33,14 @@ def read_srml(filename):
     ----------
     filename: str
         filepath or url to read for the tsv file.
+    map_variables: bool, default: True
+        When true, renames columns of the DataFrame to pvlib variable names
+        where applicable. See variable :const:`VARIABLE_MAP`.
 
     Returns
     -------
     data: Dataframe
-        A dataframe with datetime index and all of the variables listed
-        in the `VARIABLE_MAP` dict inside of the map_columns function,
-        along with their associated quality control flags.
+        A dataframe with datetime index
 
     Notes
     -----
@@ -64,7 +65,8 @@ def read_srml(filename):
     # Drop day of year and time columns
     data = data[data.columns[2:]]
 
-    data = data.rename(columns=map_columns)
+    if map_variables:
+        data = data.rename(columns=map_columns)
 
     # Quality flag columns are all labeled 0 in the original data. They
     # appear immediately after their associated variable and are suffixed
@@ -166,7 +168,8 @@ def format_index(df):
     return df
 
 
-def read_srml_month_from_solardat(station, year, month, filetype='PO'):
+def read_srml_month_from_solardat(station, year, month, filetype='PO',
+                                  map_variables=True):
     """Request a month of SRML data from solardat and read it into
     a Dataframe.  The SRML is described in [1]_.
 
@@ -180,6 +183,9 @@ def read_srml_month_from_solardat(station, year, month, filetype='PO'):
         Month to request data for.
     filetype: string
         SRML file type to gather. See notes for explanation.
+    map_variables: bool, default: True
+        When true, renames columns of the DataFrame to pvlib variable names
+        where applicable. See variable :const:`VARIABLE_MAP`.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -214,5 +220,5 @@ def read_srml_month_from_solardat(station, year, month, filetype='PO'):
         year=year % 100,
         month=month)
     url = "http://solardat.uoregon.edu/download/Archive/"
-    data = read_srml(url + file_name)
+    data = read_srml(url + file_name, map_variables=map_variables)
     return data
diff --git a/pvlib/tests/iotools/test_srml.py b/pvlib/tests/iotools/test_srml.py
index 556bd7111d..9939374ebf 100644
--- a/pvlib/tests/iotools/test_srml.py
+++ b/pvlib/tests/iotools/test_srml.py
@@ -28,6 +28,16 @@ def test_read_srml_columns_exist():
     assert '7008_flag' in data.columns
 
 
+def test_read_srml_map_variables_false():
+    data = srml.read_srml(srml_testfile, map_variables=False)
+    assert '1000' in data.columns
+    assert '1000_flag' in data.columns
+    assert '2010' in data.columns
+    assert '2010_flag' in data.columns
+    assert '7008' in data.columns
+    assert '7008_flag' in data.columns
+
+
 def test_read_srml_nans_exist():
     data = srml.read_srml(srml_testfile)
     assert isnan(data['dni_0'][1119])