Lightning Log

Count, distance, direction. NOAA's GOES-19 satellite carries a Geostationary Lightning Mapper that records every flash it sees across the Americas. Lightning Log reads its files as NOAA publishes them, every 20 seconds, and keeps the flashes within 25 miles of your ZIP code's centre. The satellite sees roughly 70 to 90 percent of flashes, and places each one to within a few miles, so distances are approximate. New flashes appear here about a minute after they happen.

Intensity is the flash's brightness as measured from orbit (its radiant energy), ranked Weak, Moderate, Strong or Very strong against typical US flashes. It is not the bolt's electrical current: a powerful flash deep inside a thick cloud can look dim from space.

Type. The satellite can't tell a bolt that reaches the ground from one that stays in the clouds. So type comes only from your camera: when a flash is within 10 miles, Lightning Log asks Ring for your camera's frame from that moment, and Claude (an AI model from Anthropic) says whether it shows a bolt to the ground, a flash in the clouds, a lit-up sky, or nothing. Most flashes won't be caught on camera; those stay "Unknown". Labels are an AI's reading of one frame and can be wrong.