Live 24/7 · NOAA GOES-19 and GOES-18 · Americas and Atlantic
Lightning map live: storms across the Americas, 24/7
This page streams a live lightning map of the Americas and the Atlantic, 24 hours a day. Every flash detected by the NOAA GOES satellites appears on the globe within about two minutes. Active storm cells pulse as halos, and the camera drifts toward the most active one. Public data, no ads, and real thunder recordings triggered by real flashes.
Starts muted; unmute for the thunder. Open on YouTube for full screen · Embed this map on your site
What you see on the live lightning map
The globe shows every lightning flash detected in the last hour across the western hemisphere. Flashes light up when they arrive and fade over a few seconds. Where many flashes cluster, a halo forms and pulses with the storm's activity. The camera slowly drifts toward whichever cell is most active.
- Flashes of the last hour, bright when new, fading as they age.
- Storm cells as pulsing halos, named after the nearest known storm region (Lake Maracaibo, Amazon Basin, Gulf Coast, Great Plains and others).
- Storm Pressure Index, the big number top right: flashes of the last ten minutes for the most active cell, with a trend arrow.
- Strikes today, counted since 00:00 UTC.
- Coverage footprints of the two satellites, so you see the edge of what is monitored.
- Sound: real thunder recordings, triggered by real flashes and placed in the stereo field where the storm is.
- Feed status: if the satellite feed stops, the screen says so instead of showing old flashes as new.
Where the data comes from
Every flash comes from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) on NOAA's GOES-19 and GOES-18 satellites. NOAA publishes GLM data as 20-second files on a public AWS bucket, free and in the public domain. We fetch new files every 40 seconds, keep a one-hour window, and compute the Storm Pressure Index ourselves.
- NOAA GOES on AWS Open Data — GLM lightning files from GOES-19 (GOES-East, 75.2° W) and GOES-18 (GOES-West, 137° W).Public domain. Polled every 40 seconds.
- Geostationary Lightning Mapper — the instrument, described by NOAA and NASA.Detects the optical pulse of lightning from orbit, day and night, over land and sea.
- Natural Earth — coastlines and land polygons for the globe.Public domain.
- Freesound — thunder and rain field recordings by bruno.auzet, fi2lcallpeace, Fission9, Kinoton and TRP.CC0 1.0, public domain. The recordings are fixed; the data decides when, which one and from where you hear them.
Known limits: GLM sees the optical flash from space, so it can miss weak strokes under thick cloud. It also does not separate cloud-to-ground from in-cloud lightning. Coverage ends at the edge of the satellite footprints.
How to read it: flashes, halos and the Storm Pressure Index
Each dot is one flash, bright when new and fading over a few seconds. Where flashes cluster, a halo appears and pulses with the cell's activity. The camera drifts toward the most active cell, so the busiest storm is usually in view. The large number at the top right is the Storm Pressure Index.
Storm Pressure Index
The index is our own metric. It counts the flashes of the last ten minutes and attributes each one to the nearest named storm region within 600 km. The trend compares those ten minutes with the last thirty. A rising trend means the cell is building; a falling trend means it is dying out.
Coverage: why Europe and Asia are missing
GOES satellites are geostationary over the western hemisphere. GOES-19 watches the Atlantic side from 75.2° W, GOES-18 the Pacific side from 137° W. Between them they see the Americas, the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific. Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania are out of view, so the map draws the footprints rather than pretending to be global.
Strikes today
The counter adds every flash detected since 00:00 UTC and resets at midnight UTC. It is a count of flashes seen by the satellites, not of strikes that reached the ground. On a busy afternoon in the tropics it runs into the hundreds of thousands.
The sound
Thunder on this stream is not a loop. A detected flash triggers a real field recording. The intensity follows the Storm Pressure Index of the cell that produced it. The sound sits in the stereo field where that cell is. Rain and wind beds change with the overall activity.
Lake Maracaibo
The most electrically active place on Earth is inside this view. Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela records storms on most nights of the year, according to NASA's satellite lightning climatology. Watch the globe after sunset local time and the halo is usually there.
Frequently asked questions
What does the live lightning map show?
The globe shows every lightning flash detected by the NOAA GOES satellites in the last hour, over the Americas and the Atlantic. New flashes appear bright and fade over a few seconds. Storm cells with many flashes become pulsing halos, and the camera drifts toward the most active one.
Which regions does the lightning map cover?
Two geostationary satellites feed the map: GOES-19 over the Atlantic side and GOES-18 over the Pacific side. Together they cover North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the eastern Pacific. Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania are outside their view, so the map shows the satellite footprints instead of pretending to be global.
How quickly does a lightning flash appear on the map?
The Geostationary Lightning Mapper detects flashes continuously, and NOAA publishes the data in 20-second files on a public cloud bucket. We download new files every 40 seconds. A flash usually appears on the globe within about two minutes of striking, plus YouTube's own broadcast delay.
What is the Storm Pressure Index?
The Storm Pressure Index is our own metric. It counts the flashes detected in the last ten minutes and attributes them to the nearest named storm region within 600 km. The trend compares those ten minutes with the last thirty, so you can see whether a storm cell is building or dying.
Can I use this map as a lightning warning?
No. This is an information and education project, not an official alert system. Satellite detection has a delay of a minute or two and can miss weak flashes. For safety decisions, use your national meteorological service, such as the US National Weather Service, and follow its lightning safety guidance.
Embed this lightning map on your site
Paste the snippet below into any HTML page. It loads a lightweight player page from livedatamonitor.com with a thin bar linking back to the stream. It is free, carries no ads, and works at any width. The second line adds a credit link; keep it if you can.
<iframe src="https://livedatamonitor.com/embed/lightning.html" width="640" height="392" style="border:0;max-width:100%" title="Live lightning map, Americas — Live Data Monitor" loading="lazy" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://livedatamonitor.com/lightning/">Live lightning map of the Americas</a> by Live Data Monitor</p>