Weather24What this is, and where the data comes from
Weather24 is a weather app for iPhone and Android. These pages are the browser version of the same instruments: the maps, the strike counter and the hourly figures run on exactly the same data feeds the app uses, with no account and nothing to install.
How the map works
Precipitation and storm intensity are drawn from numeric data rather than ready-made images, which is why the colour scale here matches the app exactly and the time-lapse plays as continuous motion.
Lightning is a separate layer. Each bolt sits at the located position of one strike, and its brightness fades with age, so a glance tells you what is happening now versus what happened nine minutes ago. The counter and the circle drawn around it describe the same area: it counts strikes inside the circle, and nothing outside it.
Every page states the age of its data. The timestamp under the map is the hour the current frame belongs to, not the time you opened the page.
Data sources
Four feeds, listed below. Nothing on these pages is generated, estimated or filled in when a source is unavailable — if a feed fails, the page says so instead of showing a number.
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1
Lightning strikes
Individual discharges located by a ground-based detection network, which computes a position from the time the signal reaches several receivers. Only the last 10 minutes are kept — nothing older is drawn or counted.
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2
Precipitation and storm cells
Computed from open forecast models — the same public model runs national weather services publish. The map frames step hourly, and the numbers in the hourly chart come from the same run, so the map and the bars never contradict each other.
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3
Current conditions
Temperature, wind and precipitation come from the same Open-Meteo forecast API, requested by your browser for the coordinates of the city on the page.
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4
Base map
Map tiles built from OpenStreetMap data and served by OpenFreeMap. City search uses the Open-Meteo geocoding API.
Open-Meteo data is used under the Creative Commons BY 4.0 license; OpenStreetMap data is © OpenStreetMap contributors. Both are credited in the footer of every page.
What these pages do not do
They do not issue warnings. Nothing here is an alert, a watch or an advisory, and opening the page is the only way you will see anything on it. In the United States, official watches and warnings are issued by the National Weather Service — weather.gov is the authority, and it should be your source when severe weather is the question.
They do not predict where lightning will strike. The map shows discharges that have already been measured. What the app adds is a notification ahead of an approaching storm cell, which is a different thing from predicting an individual strike — nobody can do that.
They do not track you. No accounts, no cookies, no ad trackers — just our host’s cookieless page-view count, with no profiles and nothing passed on. How data is handled across the app and this site is set out in the privacy policy; the rules for using the service are in the terms of use. Anything else, write to support@weather24.app.
The app
Weather24 is free on the App Store and Google Play. Publisher details, the current version and user reviews are on the store listings.