Why a 24-Hour Lightning Map Matters
A "right now" lightning map is for safety: it tells you whether to seek shelter in the next two minutes. A 24-hour lightning map is for situational awareness: it shows the day's storm narrative — where convection developed, how quickly cells moved, and which areas saw repeated strikes. Pilots, storm chasers, outdoor event organisers, utility-grid operators, and forestry agencies all rely on the 24-hour view to plan tomorrow.
Live US State Lightning Maps (Last 24 Hours)
Browse the latest 24-hour activity for any US state. Each page shows the strike count, the time of the most recent flash, and an interactive map of the latest detections from GOES-19 GLM:
- Florida lightning map — typically the most active state in the country
- Louisiana lightning map
- Mississippi lightning map
- Alabama lightning map
- Oklahoma lightning map
- Texas lightning map
- Arkansas lightning map
- Georgia lightning map
- Iowa lightning map
- Colorado lightning map
- View all 50 state lightning maps →
How to Read the Map
- Counter: total flashes detected in the bounding box of the state in the last 24 hours.
- Last strike: timestamp of the most recent detection in the area.
- Map markers: up to 50 most recent flashes plotted on an OpenStreetMap base layer. Brighter markers are more recent; markers fade with age over the 24-hour window.
- Updated: timestamp of the last data refresh. The page polls the public stats endpoint every 60 seconds.
What Counts as a "Strike" in This Map
GOES-19 GLM detects lightning flashes — both cloud-to-ground (CG) and intra-cloud (IC). Each flash is the optical signature of a complete discharge, which may include multiple return strokes. The 24-hour count therefore reflects total atmospheric electrical activity, not only the strikes that hit the ground. CG flashes are the ones humans care about for safety; IC flashes (the majority) indicate active storm convection but don't reach the surface.
For the technical details on how the GLM sensor distinguishes lightning optical pulses from background sunlight at 500 frames per second, see our deep-dive on how GOES-19 GLM detects lightning from space.
How This Compares to Other 24-Hour Maps
| Source | Coverage | Update Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| NOAA Weather Service satellite loop | US + adjacent waters | 5–15 minutes | Free |
| Lightning Tracker (this site) | 50 US states + cities | 30–60 seconds | Free |
| Blitzortung community network | Global | ~10 seconds | Free, community-run |
| Vaisala NLDN (commercial) | US (ground-based) | Real-time | Paid licence |
| Earth Networks ENTLN | Global (ground-based) | Real-time | Paid licence |
Reviewing Yesterday's Storms
The 24-hour view is also useful retrospectively: did that storm yesterday actually develop the way the forecast suggested? Was the squall line as electrically active as it looked on radar? The strike count and recent-strike feed for each state give a quantified answer to those qualitative impressions.
For a longer historical view (last 7 days), check the Last 7 days figure on each state page. For research-grade access to the underlying NetCDF4 data files, see NOAA GOES-R GLM and the noaa-goes19 public S3 bucket.
Get Lightning Alerts on Your Phone
A 24-hour map is great for review, but for live safety you want push notifications the moment lightning is detected near you. Lightning Tracker for iOS sends a notification when a flash is detected within your configured alert radius. See the lightning alerts guide for setup instructions and alternatives like NOAA Weather Radio.