Tracking lightning to anticipate fire traffic

Perhaps minorly OT...

I've had a weather station on-line since 98, and a Boltek lightning tracker on line for almost as many years. By itself, the Boltek is of little utility. It's pretty good at strike azimuth (depending on the accuracy of the antenna orientation) but not that great at range, due to the varying strength of strikes. Here's my current Boltek/Nexstorm page: San Luis Obispo, California Lightning Tracker

To that end, the Nexstorm software added GPS functionality for time stamping, to triangulate strikes. See StrikeStarUS

OK, but still not great. Not enough sensitivity, or enough station density to be effective, especially out here.

Enter Blitzortung. This is a hobbyist supported site that uses custom Internet enabled detectors and a GPS to fairly accurately range strikes using Time Delay of Arrival, or Group Time Delay of Arrival to locate strikes. I built and installed a Blitzortung Red system here in SLO.

See the California map at Blitzortung.org – lightning map Europe – thunderstorms and lightning strikes. Make sure that the
Strikes
Detectors used
Detectors assigned are selected in the left column, and watch the show.

The US page is at Blitzortung.org – lightning map USA, Canada – thunderstorms and lightning strikes

Click Sound to hear a click every time there is a detected strike.

It's been interesting today to watch the lighting over the Sierra. As I write this, there are still strikes being detected. I suppose there are some fires up there to be dealt with. Also, there were a few strikes local to SLO today.

THANK YOU!

What is the significance of the different strike colors?

baybum said:

What is the significance of the different strike colors?

Click to expand...

You can look at the color key in the upper left corner of the map. The darker the color, the older the strike is.

baybum said:

What is the significance of the different strike colors?

Click to expand...

It looks like the colors correspond to the time frame in which the lightning strike was detected.

Got it...many thanks.

This site was mentioned by a Phoenix area Skywarn spotter during some activity one recent evening:

Real-Time Lightning Map :: LightningMaps.org

John
Peoria, AZ

As a SLO resident... this is epic

Have loved your site for many years.

I don't see a way to zoom in. That is too bad as there aren't many landmarks. Right now it looks like Mammoth Mountain is getting hammered, but it has backed off and the rain is falling. In spite of the limitations this is a good tool.

I wish I had this when I lived in New Mexico. The terrain there is called "islands in the sky." The land is more or less flat with isolated mountain ranges scattered about. We lived 75 air miles from Albuquerque and could often see lightning far to the north and it would have been interesting to know where it was occurring.

Thanks for posting this information!

KB7MIB said:

This site was mentioned by a Phoenix area Skywarn spotter during some activity one recent evening:

Real-Time Lightning Map :: LightningMaps.org

John
Peoria, AZ

Click to expand...

This one can be zoomed in. It looks like it isn't Mammoth Mountain getting hammered, it is the area east of Lake Thomas A. Edison. It is great that this site uses a satellite derived base map and allows us to pinpoint where the strike actually hit.

Thanks for this link. I know I will be using it quite a bit.

TS Dolores is moving into So. Ca. Lots of lightning down in the LA area at this time showing on Blitzortung, my Boltek/Nexstorm, and even StrikeStarUS. This does not bode well for the dry mountains and potential fires.



If the models verify, it's going to be an interesting couple 3 days in the SLO area, too.

From the local PGE meteorologist's forecast...

Tropical Storm Dolores about 125 miles west-northwest of Cabo San Lucas is traveling north-northwestward along the Baja Peninsula toward Southern California. It will weaken to a Tropical Depression and then become post-tropical as it moves into Southern California Bight Sunday night/Monday morning. Subtropical moisture associated with this system is currently
producing rain showers and thunderstorms in the Los Angeles Basin.

This system will produce increasing mid to high-level clouds this afternoon into this evening which will signal a shift to warm and very muggy weather tonight into Tuesday morning.

Sprinkles, scattered rain showers and a chance of thunderstorms will start late tonight and will continue through Monday night.

This morning's model runs are indicating between one quarter and three quarters of an inch of rain could accumulate throughout San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. Even higher amounts of precipitation is advertise in the coastal mountains.

If these models verify, it could be the most rain we've ever received during the month of July. The previous record for San Luis Obispo was 0.46 inches set in 1950.

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