Lightning Strike / Thunderstorm Plotting - the center
point is the weather station location on
the shoreline of the lake, and the outermost ring is about 375 miles out.
When a storm is approaching, zoom in and look for a developing electrical
pattern heading towards
your area and plan your outdoor activities accordingly. When severe weather
is about, I like to
open a lightning page and the regional
radar page in another tab or window and refresh & compare
the two (county-by-county) as the front heads this way.
Java
is required for the 60-second, auto-refresh below. However, you may try
the Flash version on
the live
weather page by clicking on the "Lightning" button, or you
can view the static
image.
LEGEND
+CG = cloud-to-ground lightning positive (+)
+IC = cloud-to-cloud lightning positive (+)
-CG = cloud-to-ground lightning negative (-)
-IC = cloud-to-cloud lightning negative (-)
The type and polarity of new strikes are indicated by symbols, as illustrated in the legends. Dots that
fade in color from yellow through dark red indicate older strikes. The correlation between time and color
can be found in the legend. The display typically reflects a total of the last 20 minutes activity
for any given period. Electrical storm severity may be determined by strike rate and symbol density.
There are several controls on the lightning map for your use:
30 or 60 minute history can be displayed by toggling the 30m and 60m buttons.
You can zoom in on the range of the map from 375 miles to 188 miles by clicking the zoom button.
There is also a feature to run a loop of the latest archived strike data.