/lightning
The lightning endpoint delivers near real-time, high-resolution global lightning strike data—including type, location, and intensity. Up to 1,000 events from the past 5 minutes within a 100 km radius.
Lightning data
Xweather's lightning api data is built on real detection infrastructure, backed by a proprietary global network with decades of operational use across aviation, defense, and national weather services.
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40% of Fortune 100 rely on Xweather
We know when lightning strikes
Reliable real-time lightning data
Xweather’s free weather API delivers historical, real-time, and forecast strike data through dedicated endpoints, combining easy integration, advanced geospatial capabilities, and a proprietary global detection network backed by more than 40 years of operational history.
2 billion lightning events yearly
We detect the precise time and location of over 2 billion lightning events every year.
40 years of lightning detection
Backed by the longest-running lightning detection infrastructure in the world.
99.99% uptime
24 hours a day without the need to purchase or maintain additional equipment or systems.
84 m median accuracy
84 m median accuracy with precision network and 1 km globally.
Lightning endpoints
/lightning/flash
The lightning/flash endpoint provides real-time data on individual lightning flashes, with precise metadata for location, intensity, and strike type. Each flash includes timestamp, location, type (cloud-to-ground or intracloud), polarity, and peak amperage. Up to 24 hours and 50,000 events.
/lightning/threats
The lightning/threats endpoint identifies and tracks active lightning hazard zones, providing real-time polygons identifying threat zones classified as new, persistent, dissipating, or cleared, based on ongoing lightning activity and storm trajectory.
/lightning/summary
The lightning summary endpoint delivers a real-time, global snapshot of recent lightning activity for quick assessments and situational awareness of lightning pulses and strikes from the past 24 hours.
/lightning/analytics
The lightning/analytics endpoint provides aggregated lightning statistics over time and space, enabling long-term analysis, risk assessment, and planning. Counts and densities of lightning activity over time, broken down by type, polarity, intensity, and strike damage potential.
/lightning/density
The lightning/density endpoint delivers 10-year lightning climatology for any location. It returns the average annual strike density (strikes per km²) broken down by cloud-to-ground, in-cloud, and total activity for infrastructure design, risk assessment, and long-term planning.
/lightning/turbinerisk
The lightning/turbinerisk endpoint estimates the expected annual number of lightning strikes to a wind turbine based on its location and tip height for renewable energy risk assessment and insurance underwriting.
Visualize lightning data with our mapping libraries
MapsGL
MapsGL leverages WebGL for smooth, data-encrypted weather animations. The visually impressive mapping layers are optimized for low-bandwidth use and are highly customizable.
Raster Maps
Raster Maps is a tile-mapping tool ideal for still-image weather visualizations, offering 100+ layers compatible with basemap providers such as Mapbox, Google Maps, and Leaflet.
Xweather Live
Explore real-time lightning strikes, wildfire boundaries, road weather data, and more, in Xweather's browser-based weather app. Xweather Live gives you a view of what's possible with our maps and API.
Start building
Bring lightning data to your applications
Built for weather-sensitive use cases and applications
RESTful service providing precise global lightning data
Seamless integration into web, native, or mobile applications
Precise lightning strike location, polarity, peak current, classification, and timing
Low-latency delivery for operational alerting and automated decision-making
Example request
Response
Integrations made easy
Output formats
Request data in the format that fits your stack. Control exactly which fields come back and in what order. Output formats include JSON, GeoJSON, CSV, and TSV.
MCP server
Integrate lightning data into AI workflows through the Xweather MCP server. Query, analyze, and act on lightning intelligence within automated decision systems.
Webhooks
Get near real-time lightning data via webhooks. Just provide an HTTP URL, and our system will push data from any lightning endpoint to your application.
Your full weather stack
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Weather API
The most unique datasets in the market, backed by high-resolution, real-time data from a globally distributed proprietary infrastructure.
Integration tools
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Raster Maps
Raster Maps is a tile-mapping tool ideal for still-image weather visualizations, offering 100+ layers compatible with basemap providers such as Mapbox, Google Maps, and Leaflet.
Get started
Toolkits & SDKs
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MapsGL
MapsGL leverages WebGL for smooth, visually beautiful, data-encrypted weather animations optimized for low-bandwidth use.
Toolkits & SDKs
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Phrases API
Turn complex weather data into natural language summaries, real-time insights tailored to your audience.
Get started
Reference
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Xweather MCP
The Xweather MCP Server connects LLMs directly to Xweather's data platform. Simply ask a question and the model will fetch all relevant Xweather data to provide an answer that blends the model's extensive knowledge with the precision of our high quality datasets.
Supported agents
Start building today
Access lightning endpoints in the Weather API and Maps subscription, with access to all endpoints, and to high-resolution lightning visuals via Raster Maps and MapsGL.
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Frequently asked questions
Xweather Lightning API covers real-time lightning strike detection, strike location and time, strike intensity, and historical lightning datasets for analysis and modeling.
Lightning data is delivered in near real-time. The /lightning endpoint returns up to 1,000 events from the past 5 minutes within a specified radius. The /lightning/flash endpoint covers up to 24 hours and 50,000 events. All data is available within seconds of detection.
All endpoints support geographic filtering by coordinates, radius, bounding box, or named location. The /lightning/threats endpoint provides pre-filtered threat zones classified by severity. Peak current and polarity filters are available on strike-level endpoints.
Each lightning event includes precise location coordinates, timestamp, type (cloud-to-ground or intracloud), polarity, peak current in kiloamps, and a classification confidence score. The /lightning/analytics endpoint adds aggregated statistics over time and space.
The API uses standard REST endpoints returning JSON. SDKs are available for iOS, Android, and JavaScript. Webhooks deliver data in real time to any HTTP URL. The MCP server supports integration into AI and LLM workflows. All methods are documented with code examples.