Lightning Tracker & Alarm

Lightning Alarm is a lightning tracker for the person who has to make the call for a group: the golf pro, the lifeguard, the coach, the site supervisor. It answers two questions and keeps them on the first screen. Do we come off, and when may we go back?

Save the place you are responsible for and pick the rule it plays by. When a flash lands inside your ring, the server sends a lightning alert to your phone, even with the app closed or the phone locked. Then the all-clear clock starts, and it restarts every time another flash lands inside the ring. Restarting that 30 minute timer by hand is where people go back out too early, so the app does it for you.

THE STATUS SCREEN
Each place reads CLEAR, WATCH, SUSPENDED or NO COVERAGE. While suspended it shows the minutes and seconds until the all clear, how many times the clock has already been pushed back, the nearest activity, its direction, and whether the storm is closing, holding or moving away.

DISTANCE AS A RANGE
Satellite lightning detection places a flash to within a few miles, so the nearest activity is shown as a range such as "6 to 9 mi", and the suspend test uses the near edge. The live lightning map draws every flash as a circle at its real size, with your ring on top, so you can see a cell approach before it reaches you.

RULES YOU CAN TYPE
Presets for school sports, golf, pools, jobsites and boating set the radius and the all-clear time, from 8 to 15 miles and 30 minutes. Change either number with a tap, from 1 to 50 miles and 5 to 60 minutes.

THE ALARM RUNS ON THE SERVER
Your phone does not have to be watching. The geofence runs on our server against NOAA satellite data every few seconds, so the alarm arrives in your pocket. If the satellite feed falls behind or stops, the app says so in a banner instead of showing a confident CLEAR.

FREE, WITH NO ADS
One place with the server alarm, the status screen, the all-clear countdown, the live lightning tracker map and your own thresholds are free and stay free. There are no ads anywhere in the app: an ad should never stand between you and a safety decision.

PRO, ONE PURCHASE
For people who run more than one site:
More than one place, each with its own rule, ring and clock
An incident log of every closure, with times, closest approach, flash count and near misses, exportable as CSV
NWS radar under the flashes on the storm tracker map, with the scan time always on screen
A quiet schedule per place, so a jobsite alarm stays silent on your days off
Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription.

COVERAGE AND LIMITS
Lightning data comes from the GOES-East and GOES-West Geostationary Lightning Mappers (NOAA), which cover the Americas. A place outside that view reads NO COVERAGE, never CLEAR. The satellites see total lightning and cannot tell cloud-to-ground strikes apart, so the app never claims to. Alerts usually arrive within a minute of the flash. The alert does not override silent mode or Do Not Disturb.

Lightning Alarm supports your judgment and your organization's lightning policy. It does not replace them. When thunder roars, go indoors.

PRIVACY
The app sends the coordinates of the places you save, never a location track. No account, no ads, no data sold. Privacy policy: https://bigballi.com/privacy