You may have noticed over the last few weeks that the lightning depicted in the ForeFlight Mobile app has really blossomed. No, it’s not a result of the Godzilla El Niño we’ve had this winter creating several severe weather outbreaks in the Deep South. All of those extra lightning symbols are courtesy of a switch to use a much improved lightning source called the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN). This is the world’s largest lightning detection network with over 1200 sensors worldwide. This is the same lightning network that has been used by the NTSB when investigating aircraft accidents. Here are four fun facts about the lightning now depicted in ForeFlight.
The new lightning recently added to the ForeFlight Mobile app has a detection efficiency of 90 percent.
#1 – The lightning depicted in ForeFlight is worldwide
It is estimated by research meteorologists that at any given moment in time, there are nearly 2,000 thunderstorms occurring around the world. This includes about 100 strikes for every second that passes. This is important since the presence of lightning is indicative of dangerous convective turbulence and the potential for low-level wind shear. Ground-based radar such as NEXRAD has a limited range and only covers a small portion of the earth. Lightning detectors, on the other hand, can sense strikes from a thunderstorm that is a thousand miles away providing coverage in regions where ground-based radar does not reach.
It may be tempting to penetrate between the gap in radar coverage for this line of storms off the Southeast coast, but the lightning aids to fill in that gap keeping you alert for dangerous convective turbulence.
#2 – All forms of lightning are included
The Earth Networks lightning sensor is a wideband system. This enables the sensor to not only detect strong cloud-to-ground strikes, but detect weak in-cloud pulses as well. With a detection efficiency of nearly 95 percent, the lightning depicted in ForeFlight includes just about all of the natural lightning that is occurring around the world.
Just about every lightning strike that occurs will be shown in the app. This includes both cloud-to-ground and in-cloud lightning strikes.
#3 – Radar layer includes lightning
While connected to the Internet, there are two ways to display lightning in the ForeFlight Mobile app. By default, lightning is included as part of the radar layer. So tapping on the radar layer in the dropdown menu will also overlay the latest lightning. However, there’s no way to remove the lightning from this layer. Keep in mind that this includes lightning that may be in locations outside of ground-based radar coverage. So it will be pretty common to see clusters or pools of strikes far beyond the U.S. and Canadian borders where no radar imagery is displayed.
You can also add the latest lightning to any other layer on the Map view. Simply tap on the Map mode button and select Lightning from the dropdown menu as shown above. The lightning in this layer is nearly an exact duplicate of the lightning displayed in the radar layer discussed above. This unique lightning layer is useful when also displaying the color-enhanced satellite layer. Areas of thunderstorms typically have very cold (high) cloud tops. Blue, yellow, orange and red colors on the satellite layer depict regions with cold cloud tops. However, not all cold cloud tops indicate an area of deep, moist convection (thunderstorms). So the lightning layer as an overlay is a good way to confirm where the truly nasty convection is occurring. Keep in mind that the satellite image could be more than 30 minutes old at times.
#4 – Latest 10 minutes of lightning is depicted
Regardless if you are viewing the lightning overlaid on the radar layer or the separate lightning layer, the age of the strikes depicted typically ranges from 3 to 10 minutes. Then, this lightning continues to age as it is cached in the app for the next five minutes. After this five minute period, the app automatically refreshes the lightning to include the latest strikes over the last 10 minutes and removes strikes older than 10 minutes. This is optimized to match the radar depiction.
Tapping on any strike symbol from the unique radar layer will reveal its age within the popup.
