Weather24Live lightning map: where is the storm now
Lightning today: no strikes recorded in the last 24 hours within 500 km of the centre of the UK. Strikes from the last few minutes and storm cells on the same map.
Lightning near me
The map shows the whole area; this box measures from you: how far the nearest strike is from where you are.
The timelapse shows where the storm is coming from and where it is heading.
Lightning in the area on screen
Every strike from the last 10 minutes in the current map view.
in the last 10 minutes within 482 km
Latest strike: —
Storm on the way? The app tells you first.
A push notification about 30 minutes before the cell reaches you, even with the app closed.
Lightning strikes map: what each symbol means
One symbol = one measured strike
It's not an estimate: the symbol sits at the position recorded by the lightning detection network. Fresh strikes are brighter, older ones fade; tap one to see “X min ago”.
The counter counts what is on screen
The big number above refers to what you see: move or zoom out the map and the count recalculates for the new area. Zero strikes means zero, not “missing data”.
Quiet is information too
An area with no strikes for ten minutes is an area with no detected lightning. That's the most useful thing to know when deciding whether the storm has passed.
Storm radar: the cell, not just the strike
The purple layer does not draw lightning: it draws the storm cell, the structure that produces it. The pale edge is the outskirts, the darkest shade in the middle is the core, where convection is strongest. A strike tells you about the past — something that has already happened — while the cell tells you about the structure that will keep producing strikes over the next few minutes.
Read the two layers together: dense strikes inside a dark core mean an active, organised storm; scattered strikes at the edge of a fading cell are the tail end of it.
Lightning today: how to tell where the cell is going
The timelapse runs through the last few hours: the cell's track is the line joining its successive positions.
Start the timelapse and watch the core, not the edge: the edge changes shape every frame, the core moves more steadily and shows the direction. If the line points towards you, estimate the arrival time from the distance covered between frames. Working out the future track is the app's job; the page shows what has been measured.
Four useful facts while you watch the map
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1
How far away is the storm
Sound travels about 340 metres a second: count the seconds between the flash and the thunder and multiply by 340 to get the distance. Three seconds is roughly a kilometre.
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2
You only hear thunder up close
Beyond about fifteen kilometres, thunder usually doesn't reach your ears any more. If you can hear it, the cell is close; if you only see the flash, it's further away.
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3
Lightning can strike far from the core
Strikes do not stay under the darkest part of the cell: on the map you regularly see them at the edges, kilometres from the heaviest rain.
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4
A car body acts as a Faraday cage
A closed cabin with a metal body carries current around the outside. That is the physical reason a car behaves differently from an open shelter.
This page gives you data and a map, not safety instructions: official thunderstorm warnings and advice in the UK come from the Met Office.