![]() This page will be updated to a more robust version including PIREPs by the end of April. The NWS Radar page and NWS Satellite page also are available. The URL should auto-update with the current settings, allowing for an easy bookmark/favorite. Īdditional URL parameters include lt (center latitude), ln (center longitude), zm (zoom level, 0-12), nolabel (removes flight category icon ID labels), hidemenu (hides the menu options on the lower left), wide (thicken US state boundaries), county (include US counties and other political boundaries based on zoom level), hidefir (hide FIR boundary), zseareas (add the ZSE ARTCC areas), and start (UTC start date/time, YYYYMMDDhhmm format, AWC data goes back up to 2 days, GLM data up to 5 hours). To expand the radar map, keeping the menus/options above and legend below, click ⟺ (include "&invert" in the URL to reverse the background/text colors). To toggle the lower-left menu visible/hidden, click the ≪ or ≫ button. Left-clicking on the "Speed" area will slow the loop and right-clicking will accelerate the loop, ranging from 0.05 to 5 second interval. When both the flight category and weather are displayed, the flight category icon will be on the inside and the partially-transparent weather color on the outside.Ĭlicking on the map will start/stop the loop. Also, GeoColor images may occasionally miss a frame or two. On the GeoColor satellite images (GOES-West/East cutoff at -114°) the pale bule areas are nighttime areas of lower clouds. The radar, lightning, visible satellite, IR satellite, GeoColor satellite, SIGMETs/CWAs, and flight categories/weather can be toggled on/off. MORE FROM WEATHER.The above loop uses radar and visible/IR satellite data obtained from Aviation Weather Center (AWC), GeoColor satellite data from NOAA NESDIS-STAR, lightning (GLM) data from NOAA nowCOAST, and observations (for flight category and weather) from MesoWest. ![]() It can’t hurt to pay particular attention. And we’ll just add, if you live in one of the places where lightning’s more likely to strike, look at your forecast and have a plan to find shelter. The National Weather Service offers a pretty simple piece of advice to remember: When thunder roars, go indoors. Lightning strikes are reported to have resulted in 99,423 lightning claims totaling 790 million in 2015, with an average claim of 7,947 according to the Insurance Information Institute. ![]() “Sometimes that’s the highest point sometimes it’s not. “ looks for the best conducting path to ground,” Erdman said. For example, even though lightning doesn’t always strike the highest given point in any area, it’s probably a good idea to not be on a golf course holding up a club or on open water in a boat. Though some theories about lightning are no more than myths - protective rubber-soled sneakers, we’re looking at you - others ring true. “More people may be outside at the pool or at the beach.” “To me those are the types that are most dangerous,” he said. and Canada, so southern storms move slowly, only 5 or 10 miles per hour, sitting over one area and producing what Erdman calls a series of prolific lightning strikes. In the spring months in the south, thunderstorms move quickly - anywhere from 30 to 50 miles per hour or faster. While lightning rates may be impressive, thunderstorms may not last long. In the summertime, however, the jet stream is in the northeast of the U.S. “The more people want to get out in the afternoon, that’s where we start to see the lightning fatalities and injuries in places like Colorado.”Īnother factor in why some places are more prone to lightning strikes has to do with the speed of the storms, which is determined by winds well above the surface. The map units are number of strikes per square km per minute multiplied by a scaling factor of 103. ![]() Obviously, there are more thunderstorms in the summer,” he said. The lightning strike density maps cover the geographic area from 25 degrees South to 80 degrees North latitude and from 110 degrees East to 0 degrees West longitude. “Outdoor recreation is the most active in the summertime. The other, he said, is from Oklahoma through eastern Kansas and north into southern Iowa. The first is all of Florida up to the northern Gulf Coast. “In the United States, there are two hot zones,” said Jonathan Erdman, a senior meteorologist for The Weather Channel. It’s no surprise that the top five, which each saw more than 50 lightning strikes between 19, were in the south. (ABOVE: The Top 50 Counties for Lightning Strikes) In fact, Mary Ann Cooper, M.D., who runs the Lightning Injury Research Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, writes that the number of people harmed from lightning is four to five times that of the number of fatalities.Ī new map of the United States from Google created with numbers from the University of South Carolina’s “Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database” reveals where most of these lightning strikes take place. It kills at least 50 people every year in the United States - some sources put the number closer to 300 - and many more are permanently injured from the weather. ![]()
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