North Florida Lightning Tracker

The electromagnetic signature of lightning strokes varies and is different based on whether it is cloud to cloud, cloud to ground or ground to cloud. A single detector and its processing software is unable to triangulate on a potential strike and so various algorithms have been developed to try to differentiate between electrical noise and actual strikes. Also because there is no triangulation the distance of a strike is dependent on how close that strike was to the "average" strength of a lightning strike. Strong strikes at long distances may look as close as a weak strike at a closer distance (or even closer). It provides a pretty reasonable interpretation of lightning strikes and can provide meteorological information.