EuroLightning

Watch thunderstorms sweep across Europe. EuroLightning draws recent lightning strikes as bright points on a full-screen satellite map of Europe and the Mediterranean, no clutter, no walls of numbers, just the storm. Every strike is coloured by age: a fresh strike lands white with a yellow burst, then fades through amber (15 min), orange (45 min) and red as it ages, up to two hours. At a glance you can see where a storm is active right now and the path it has carved across the map. The data comes from the Lightning Imager on EUMETSAT's Meteosat Third Generation satellites, the same geostationary weather satellites European meteorologists rely on. Coverage is continent-wide and consistent, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and from North Africa to Scandinavia, with no dependence on ground sensor networks. HOW FRESH IS THE DATA? EuroLightning is near-real-time, not instant. Strikes appear…