(2015-07-01, 21:26)aorange Wrote: Hello all,

I'm hoping someone can help me.
I'm researching an event from last night where a series of lightning strikes occurred within a small window of time. I've been able to pinpoint and capture the strikes using lightningmaps.org but need help interpreting the data!  Could one of you experts help out a newbie with an easy bunch of questions?  

Thank you in advance!
Amber O.

(2015-07-02, 16:35)aorange Wrote: Hi Mike!
Thanks for the caveat - and I completely understand.  This is for a research piece about using publicly available data
(I'm a librarian).  
I am interested in understanding how to interpret the attached image, and also what sort of reasonable assumptions can be
made (or not made) from the data. Again, this is more of a primer for me in terms of how to use the data on the site.  
So here are my two questions!
(1) Do the purple dots in the attached screenshot represent lightning strikes on the ground?
Blitzortung RED system detects Cloud to Ground, and the occasional 'cloud to cloud, or inter-cloud' sferic. As well as rare 'false' detections. The dots do indicate that (generally) 8 - 20 or more stations detected  a discharge, within a very tight (micro-seconds) GPS based timing reference, and the 'timing' deviation errors that are computed / averaged are illustrated with that 'dot' in the center... the smaller the 'circle' the lesser computed deviation.  (possible location error). The color of the dots, by the way, relate to 'how long ago'... minutes or hours.. on the 'real-time maps'. 

(2) How reasonable is it to assume that a specific location (in the red box on the map) could be impacted by a strike that occurred in the range of the outer circle?

We can't make that assumption at all, unless we visibly see the discharge ourselves, or a qualified observer / investigator explores any residual evidence.  As you know, lightning does 'impact things'. 
Now, if your computer blew up in a thunderstorm,
or you had 'roast beef on the ground' nearby,
and you saw lightning,
and Blitzortung indicated strikes along with commercial or 'certified' networks such as Vaisalia, etc...  
.... well, I might bet on that horse...
you wouldn't need a lightning detector network to confirm that type of assumption. 

But the Data itself simply says there was an 'apparent' discharge within a certain radius of 'that dot'... and couldn't prove an 'impact' by itself. It could, perhaps, in some cases, be 'coincidental' data to 'support' the physical evidence.

The target I am interested in is lat/long 33.53/-79.98 and the strikes occurred sometime between 7pm-9pm on June 30th.
Thank you in advance for help!
Alex