What "Last Strike Near Me" Means
The "last strike near you" is the most recent lightning flash detected within a defined radius of your current location. The radius depends on the tool:
- iOS app — uses device GPS, defaults to 50 km radius for free users (configurable for premium).
- State lightning map — uses the state's bounding box (whole-state coverage).
- City lightning map — uses an 80 km radius around the city centre, covering metro area + nearby suburbs.
Three Ways to Find the Last Strike Near You
1. State or city lightning map
Browse to the lightning map for your state. The "Last strike" field shows the timestamp of the most recent detected flash; the map below shows up to 50 most recent flashes plotted on OpenStreetMap. Browse:
2. Mobile app with GPS
Lightning Tracker for iOS uses device GPS to query the GOES-19 GLM feed for the nearest detected flash. The result includes:
- Distance in miles and kilometres
- Bearing (compass direction from your location to the strike)
- Time-since-detection
- Storm cell movement vector if the strike is part of a tracked cell
3. Flash-to-bang (no app required)
Heard thunder? Count seconds between flash and bang, divide by 5 — that's the distance in miles to the most recent strike audible from your location. See our flash-to-bang guide.
What "Near" Means in Safety Terms
Any strike within 6 miles (10 km) is close enough to seek shelter — the 30-30 rule. A strike within 1 mile (1.6 km) is essentially on top of you. A strike within 0.5 mile is dangerous even inside if you are touching plumbing, corded phones, or plugged-in electronics; see indoor lightning safety.
How GOES-19 Locates Each Strike
The GLM detects optical pulses at 500 frames per second using a CCD focal plane array filtered to 777.4 nm. Each detection is a single pixel that exceeds the brightness threshold of the background. Adjacent pixels in the same frame are clustered into events; events into groups; groups into flashes (the unit displayed on consumer maps). The flash centroid is computed and reported as a single latitude / longitude with millisecond-precision timestamp.
Spatial accuracy is 8–14 km depending on viewing angle (oblique viewing at the edge of the GLM field-of-view loses some precision to parallax). For sub-kilometre accuracy, ground-based networks like NLDN are needed. For SEO purposes and casual decision-making, GOES-19 GLM is more than accurate enough.
Get Push Notifications
To skip the manual check, the Lightning Tracker iOS app sends a push notification the moment a flash is detected within your configured radius. Setup options + alternatives like NOAA Weather Radio in the lightning alerts guide.