Recent Lightning Strikes for US - 15 sec, 1 min, 5 min

The Lightning API provides the ability to lookup lightning strikes that happened for a given period of time in the specified region. This API provides data for the recent lightning strikes that occurred in the Continental United States for the specified period.

Details

  • Domain Portfolio: Observations
  • Domain: Historical
  • Usage Classification: Limited Availability
  • Geography: CONUS
  • Attribution Required: N/A
  • Attribution Requirements: N/A

HTTP Headers and Data Lifetime - Caching and Expiration

For details on appropriate header values as well as caching and expiration definitions, see the Common Usage Guide.

Atomic Endpoints Aggregate Product Name
/v3/wx/lightning/recent/conus/15seconds v3-wx-lightning-recent-conus-15seconds
/v3/wx/lightning/recent/conus/1minute v3-wx-lightning-recent-conus-1minute
/v3/wx/lightning/recent/conus/5minute v3-wx-lightning-recent-conus-5minute

URL Construction

Request by Geocode: Required Parameters: startDateTime, format, units, apiKey | Optional Parameters: strikeType

https://api.weather.com/v3/wx/lightning/recent/conus/15seconds?startDateTime=<startDateTime>&format=<format>&units=<units>&apiKey=yourApiKey
https://api.weather.com/v3/wx/lightning/recent/conus/15seconds?startDateTime=20170921120515&format=json&units=e&apiKey=yourApiKey

Valid Parameter Definitions

Parameter Description Example
startDateTime

Start date time of period request in UTC. The start date time must be within past 1 hour from the current time. For example, if the current time is “13-Dec-2017 09:27:21”, then a valid startDateTime would be between “13-Dec-2017 08:27:21” and “13-Dec-2017 09:27:21”

For 15seconds endpoint, the format must be YYYYMMDDHHmmss and seconds (ss) value must be an interval of 15. For example: 00, 15, 30, 45.

For 1minute endpoint, the format must be YYYYMMDDHHmm and minute (mm) value must be any value from 00 to 59.

For 5minute endpoint, the format must be YYYYMMDDHHmm and minute (mm) value must be an interval of 5. For example: 00, 05, 10, … , 50, 55.

20170925120015

201709251201

201709251205

format The format in which the response is to be returned. json
units

For units = e, the output fields errorMajor and errorMinor will be in miles.

For units = m, the output fields errorMajor and errorMinor will be in kilometers.

 e
strikeType

strikeTypeCode of cloud = cloud to cloud strike type

strikeTypeCode of ground = cloud to ground strike type

strikeTypeCode of all = both cloud to cloud AND cloud to ground strike types

 cloud

Data Elements and Definitions

Note: Field names are sorted alphabetically in the following table for presentation purposes. The following table does not represent the sort order of the API response.
Field Name Description Type Range Sample Nulls Allowed
“lightning”   [array]      
errorAzimuth Azimuth of error ellipse, in degrees. Clockwise bearing from 0 degrees north. [decimal] 0 to 180.0 23.37 N
errorMajor Error ellipse semi-major axis length [decimal] 0 to 50.0 km for units = m and 0 to 80.0 mi for units = e 1.2116768 N
errorMinor Error ellipse semi-minor axis length [decimal] 0 to 50.0 km for units = m and 0 to 80.0 mi for units = e 1.1060435 N
detectedTimeUtc Time when the strike was made available, UTC timezone. [string] ISO 8601 with milliseconds precision 2017-03-30T13:57:39.458+00:00 N
intensity Magnitude and polarity of strike [decimal] Any integer 15000 N
latitude Latitude of strike location up to five (5) decimals [decimal] -90.0 to 90.0 -1.79979 N
longitude Longitude of strike location up to five (5) decimals [decimal] -180.0 to 180.0 -44.54565 N
sensorsInvolved Number of sensors involved in detecting the lightning strike [integer] Any integer greater than 0. 3 N
strikeTypeCode Cloud indicator [integer] 0 or 1: 0 means cloud to ground, 1 means cloud to cloud 0 N
validTimeUtc Valid time of strike (the time the lightning strike actually occurred), UTC timezone [string] ISO 8601 with milliseconds precision 2017-03-30T13:57:31.231+00:00 N

JSON Sample

{
    "metadata": {
        "status_code": 200,
        "version": "1.0",
        "transaction_id": "1506003035369:1667353793",
        "units": "e",
        "expire_time_gmt": 1506006635
    },
    "success": true,
    "lightning": {
        "intensity": [
            -10000,
            -38000
        ],
        "sensorsInvolved": [
            1,
            4
        ],
        "strikeTypeCode": [
            0,
            0
        ],
        "errorAzimuth": [
            29.4,
            36.1
        ],
        "errorMajor": [
            1.2116768,
            1.1246847
        ],
        "errorMinor": [
            1.1060435,
            0.9258454
        ],
        "latitude": [
            18.206506,
            18.247723
        ],
        "longitude": [
            75.542999,
            75.676939
        ],
        "validTimeUtc": [
            "2017-09-21T13:59:14.221+0000",
            "2017-09-21T13:59:14.268+0000"
        ],
        "detectedTimeUtc": [
            "2017-09-21T14:00:09.000+0000",
            "2017-09-21T14:00:09.000+0000"
        ]
    }
}