Lightning Alerts
Start with the live lightning map
Lightning Alerts shows recent ground-reaching and intracloud strikes on a live map. Use the controls at the top to change how strikes are colored, add radar context, filter the map, or find a strike.
What do the strike colors mean?
By default, colors show the time since each strike. Red strikes are the newest, up to 10 minutes old. Orange follows, and pale yellow strikes are 20 to 60 minutes old. The New–Old legend at the top of the map shows the scale.
Tap the legend to open Strike colors and choose Time since strike or Strength.
Large numbered circles group nearby strikes at the current zoom. Zoom in to separate the group and inspect individual strikes.
How do I color strikes by strength?
In Strike colors, choose Strength. Light blue strikes are weaker and dark blue strikes are stronger, and the legend changes to Weak–Strong.
Strength is shown as peak current in kiloamps, shortened to kA. To jump to the strongest strike, tap Find and choose Strongest in view.
How do I filter ground and cloud lightning?
Tap Filter and choose All, Ground, or Cloud. Ground hides intracloud flashes so ground-reaching strikes are easier to inspect. Cloud shows intracloud activity, and All restores both types.
Below the strike types, choose Both, Positive, or Negative polarity. It works with All, Ground, and Cloud. Choose Ground and Positive to see only positive ground strikes, which are less common and often stronger. Cloud strikes also have a + or − sign, from their measured peak current.
The sliders below hide old or weak strikes, and the count shows how many strikes in view match.
What can I see when I open a strike?
Tap an individual marker to open its available details. Depending on the detected event, the app can show age, distance, direction, type, strength, polarity, and nearby street context.
These details help you move from a map full of markers to one specific detected strike. Find takes you to the closest strike to you, your saved place, or the map center.
How do lightning alerts work?
In the app's Settings, turn on Lightning alerts to receive notifications for My Location and one Saved Place, each with its own alert distance. Each alert says how many strikes, how close, and how recent. Tapping a notification returns you to the live map so you can inspect nearby activity.
Your phone also has a separate system notification permission. That permission may remain allowed when you turn off Lightning alerts inside the app. The in-app switch controls whether Lightning Alerts should send lightning alerts.
How do I see lightning from the last 7 days?
Tap Find, then the row under Strike history. You see the last 7 days around your location or saved place: how many storms and strikes there were, the closest strike, strikes per hour, where they struck, and a list of storms.
Tap an hour in Strikes per hour, or slide along a day, to see that hour's strikes on the map. To play strikes back on the map in time order, tap a storm in the list or Replay this hour.
One storm replay every 30 days is free, and replaying an hour counts as replaying its storm. Pro replays every storm and every hour. The week summary, chart, map and storm list stay free. New strikes can take up to an hour to appear in history.
Do I need Pro to use Lightning Alerts?
No. The free version includes the core lightning map, strike details, radar, alert features, and strike history. It is supported by ads, and continuing live updates may ask you to watch a short ad after the included refreshes are used.
Pro is an optional monthly subscription. It removes ads, lets you replay every storm in strike history, and keeps live map updates running without watching an ad.
Free
Core map, strike details, radar, alerts, and strike history with ad-supported live updates and one storm replay every 30 days.
Pro
The same focused lightning experience without ads or ad-based update interruptions, plus a replay of every storm.
Common questions
Why does my phone still show notifications as allowed after I turn off Lightning alerts?
The phone permission and the app's Lightning alerts switch are separate. The phone permission means the app may show notifications when its Lightning alerts switch is on.
Can I monitor a place away from my current location?
Yes. Add one saved place for a home, destination, field, beach, or another location that matters to you.
Where can I ask about something that is still unclear?
Email lightning.alerts.live@gmail.com. Tell us what you were trying to do and which screen was confusing so we can help and improve the guide.
What does detected lightning mean?
Detected lightning means a lightning data provider recorded a lightning signal and made it available to the app. It does not mean every strike is detected, shown instantly, or available in every location.
Data source
Data limits
Detected strike data can be delayed or incomplete. Lightning Alerts shows detected strikes rather than forecasting future strikes. Alert delivery also depends on device settings, network availability, provider data, and app delivery systems.
Supported platforms
Lightning Alerts is available for iOS on the App Store and Android on Google Play. Screens can look slightly different between platforms and app versions.
Comparison guides
If you are comparing lightning tracker apps, see the source-linked My Lightning Tracker alternative guide at https://lightningalerts.live/my-lightning-tracker-alternative.
Publisher and support contact
Publisher: Lightning Alerts Oy. Support: lightning.alerts.live@gmail.com.