About the ThorntonWeather.com Lightning Detection System

The ThorntonWeather.com lightning detector represents a significant addition to our website and our capability to help area residents be aware of approaching storms. This system comprises two major components:

The Hardware - Boltek StormTracker PCI

The Boltek StormTracker works by detecting the radio signals produced by lightning. These are the same signals you can hear on an AM radio during a thunderstorm. StormTracker's direction-finding antenna provides direction information while storm distance is calculated from received signal strength.

The StormTracker is an add-on computer card allowing us to not only tell if lightning is near but see where it is. StormTracker detects lightning strikes 300+ miles away and plots them in real time on a map of our area. This allows us to receive early warning of approaching or developing storms and to follow developing and decaying storms from the first strike to the last.

StormTracker's antenna is a small black box (3"x2"x1-1/2") which in our case is mounted outdoors, away from any potential sources of electrical interference. This is a direction-finding antenna to determine the direction the lightning signal came from. The antenna is in turn connected to the card via a normal network cable run between it and the computer.

StormTracker's receiver looks at the signal strength to calculate an approximate distance for the lightning strike. Once StormTracker knows the direction and distance of the strike it plots it on the map.

The Software - Nexstorm

The data received by the Boltek system is then fed into a software product called Nexstorm. Nexstorm, by Astrogenic, is the premier lightning detection and analysis software on the market. It provides for highly accurate classification of CG (Cloud to Ground) and IC (Intra-Cloud) stroke types and polarities using signal processing algorithms based on latest research findings in the field of lightning physics science.

First-rate close storm distance ranging is possible with this software. Average storm location accuracy inside 30 km (18 mi) distance radius for a well calibrated system is less than ±5 km (±3.1 mi), thanks to the sophisticated Noise Ranging Assist feature.

TRAC (Thunderstorm Ranging and ACquisition) is an intelligent, fuzzy logic type sub process for ranging and tracking of individual storm cells. It features tagged, color coded storm cell target plots on the map with high locating accuracy for individual storm cells. A TRAC report which contains detailed information about each storm cell that the software is currently tracking is also displayed.

Nexstorm does all of this in real-time and then updates the ThorntonWeather.com website every 30 seconds with the latest data.

More Information

Please visit our Lightning Education Center for more information.