31 July 2025

"The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has established a new world record for the longest lightning flash – an incredible 829 km (515 miles) in a notorious storm hotspot in the United States of America."

"The megaflash occurred in October 2017, during a major thunderstorm complex. It extended from eastern Texas to near Kansas City - equivalent to the distance between Paris and Venice in Europe."

The original article can be read here: https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-ce...record-usa

Enjoy!

Update:

Original publication introduction:

"Lightning is viewed as a localized hazard to the general public, with safety guidance implying
being close enough to the thunderstorm to hear or see lightning (Cooper, 2012). Lightning
“megaflashes” (Lyons et al. 2019) challenge this view as single continuous long horizontal
flashes that extend for hundreds of kilometers through the clouds, initiating up to hundreds of
Cloud-to-Ground (CG) strokes along their paths. Moreover, megaflashes occur in regions of
organized storm systems that might seem inactive with 30 minutes or longer passing between
flashes (Peterson and Stano 2021). They are also known to produce noteworthy effects –
including potentially damaging high peak current CG strokes with continuing current, and
dazzling sprites above the cloud-top."

PDF can be downloaded here:

https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journa...0037.1.xml

My question is: are there any hams that are involved with this system to receive and report lightning strikes, anywhere in the world. Is the board difficult to populate, and does it require any surface mount components? What about the receiving antenna...I see a lot of variations and wonder which type has shown the best success. My QTH is only two miles west of the Wasatch Front...part of the Rocky Mountains. I'm at 4400 feet and the mountains go to about 7500 feet, so there is the possibility that I might not be able to "see" lightning to the east of me. Thanks for any advice or ideas. 73 de K7UV

Dear team 
I have a question.
I have the mini version at home and works nicely.
But I am also as Hamradio transmitting on 136 kHz 474 kHz and HF and VHF frequencies. I noticed that this gives a disturbance on the mini receiver.
Is this Harm full for the preamplifier , so I should disconnect the preamplifier  or using band pass filter for the mini or is this ok and the AGC can handle it.
The output power of the transmitters is  max 100 watt.
Thanks
ok8leo

I've just received my Mini Blue device, and it seems to be working—I can access it via its IP address and log in through the website. However, I'm a bit unsure about what steps to take next to set it up properly.
Yesterday, I thought I found a setup page, but now it won't let me log in. Also, I'd like to know how to make sure my station appears on the public list.
Are there any key settings or c
Apologies for the ghost
— SH

Is there any way to get the files for PCB 13 and 14? I would like to get some made. I see places that will make boards and do the SMD part.

Seems a lot of the files are purged from BO database.

TIA

D

Hi,
I'm using the data stored at Data/Protected but I'm struggling to understand whether the Region subsetting is mutually exclusive.

Suppose I want to gather ALL pulses detected over Europe in a certain day.
As far as I understand this means I have to gather the data from AT LEAST folders Strikes_1 and Strikes_18. Strikes_19 appears to be just a mirror of Strikes_18.




However, there are some lighthings over Europe that are coming from the other regions, for example Strikes_3.

Does that mean that the pulses detected in that region (which in theory does not include Europe) also need to be considered? 
Basically I just want to make sure that lighthings saved in every region do not contain duplicate in other regions, which would mean that the only 100% safe way of extracting data from the archive is to consider all regions every time.

I'm helping another user optimize his RED system.  He's installed his ferrite antennas inside a metal shed.  I don't think that's a good idea.

Any comments?

I installed ferrite antenna in attic of garage. It is a single attached garage. I replaced the 1 foot leads from antenna to pre-amp to avoid mounting it up with antenna. There is about 20 feet of 26 ga twisted pair shielded going to pre-amp. There is about 20 feet of Cat5 from pre-amp to amp.

I wonder what might be the best way to optimize performance by removing noise floor?

1. Provide cleaner power supply

2. Shorten twisted pair back to 1 foot and use 20 feet of Cat5 to amp 

3. I have 100 feet of direct burial Cat5 on hand that could run out to a weatherproof enclosure up to 75 feet away from the house.

I seem unable to turn gains up past 10x2 or it goes steady interference.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Image of vIn

   

Hello,

Please forgive my lack of knowledge.  I use this website frequently to help determine where wildland fires may start in my region during fire season.  The problem I have is that, if I am not monitoring this site constantly as a storm passes, and plotting the strikes separately, then the information is lost once the strike drops off the map.  It would be of enormous help to me to be able to see strike data for a specific region aver the past 6-12, maybe even 24 hours.  Is there a way to do this?  If so, how?  If not, is it something you folks would ever consider implementing?

Either way, please know that a great many of us in the farm/ranch community are very grateful that this site exists.  Fires often don't take off and burn for several hours after a strike, and it's wonderful to have some data to help us focus our watch efforts.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’ve been following Blitzortung for a while and really enjoy seeing how global lightning activity gets tracked by so many volunteers. I’m now seriously considering setting up my own station and contributing data to the network.

Before I order a kit, I’d like to ask a few quick questions:
For a beginner, is it better to go for the System Blue or wait for any future hardware updates?

I’ve seen some amazing station setups on this forum and would love to learn from everyone’s experience.

Thanks a lot in advance for your advice and insights!

Best regards,
WonderNomad