Right away. When you connect, your log is filled with the last day of lightning near your ZIP code (as much as our server holds, up to 24 hours). After that, each flash appears about a minute after it happens, as NOAA publishes the satellite's files every 20 seconds.
The satellite (NOAA's GOES-19 lightning mapper) sees roughly 70 to 90 percent of flashes over the US and places each one to within a few miles, so a flash shown 3 miles away may have been 1 or 5 miles away. Counts are flashes, and one flash can have several strokes you'd see as flickers. Ground-based networks used by utilities can be more precise, but their data isn't free to use.
How bright the flash looked from orbit (its radiant energy), ranked against typical US flashes: Weak, Moderate, Strong, Very strong. It isn't the bolt's electrical current; a powerful flash buried in a thick cloud can read dim.
The satellite can't tell a ground strike from an in-cloud flash, so type comes only from your camera. When a flash is within 10 miles, Lightning Log asks Ring for an image your camera already recorded in the seconds around it (from Snapshot Capture or a motion event) and Claude, an AI model, labels what it shows. Most of the time the camera recorded nothing at that instant, or faced away from the bolt, and the type stays Unknown. Turning on Snapshot Capture at its most frequent setting helps. Labels are one AI reading of one frame and can be wrong.
No. Every flash, distance and count comes from the satellite. A camera flash, headlights or a porch light never shows up as lightning.
No. It is a log, not a safety warning: it runs about a minute behind and the satellite misses some flashes. If you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck. Go indoors and wait 30 minutes after the last thunder.
The lower 48 United States.
Use Settings on your log page. A new ZIP is a new place, so it starts a new log with the last day filled in.
Use Delete my data on your log page, or remove Lightning Log in the Ring app. Either erases everything immediately.
Email michaelbflynn@gmail.com. We reply within two business days.