My Lightning Tracker & Alerts

This is one of the best lightning detection apps out there! Reliable strike data, color coded time dots, and nice push notifications. I would love to see the ability to add some saved locations to the app and send push notifications based on those saved locations. You can manually turn off the auto-update location feature to have the app just fixed on one point and notify based on that point but then you lose current location notifications. Having a saved location in addition to current location would help me to monitor lightning at a sports practice location for example.

This app for seeing detected and getting alerted of real-time lightning strikes is pretty good and actually does its job alerting you about them for the most part through push notifications. And the alerting time interval and radial distance settings are also a very good and useful +. But, I really wish that the push notifications alert messages would also include the DISTANCE of the nearest / latest strike instead of just displaying that lightning was detected. Then, the alerting aspect would be A Lot more useful if this was also included every time the app is set to alert you, despite the radial distance set from the location. This is because I'd want to know how close the latest strike is. Especially if the storm(s) is moving toward set location for push alerts.

The app is easy to use. The strike location points change color based on age which makes clear where the most recent activity is. It was useful the following night when some storms were cruising by at a distance and I setup my tripod and cam to get some shots from the balcony. I would have missed it otherwise. Not considered in the rating as the radar feature is new. Radar is presented as static current view (no animation of recent movement). Some of the tiles don’t load and with no refresh button I can’t force it to reload it easily. I just bought the paid version to support the app dev and remove the ads.

Update: the developer responded to this review to let me know that there was a temporary issue that caused a disruption. I got the sense it was a problem external to the app. It seems to be fine now and I give high marks for the developer that took time to respond. Previous 1 star review text follows...This used to be reliable, but the latest update seems to have completely broken it. Will alert me, but not show me lightning strikes on the map. Then it hangs when I try to select my location. If I move the map and then relocate myself (when I can get that feature to work) it will then show strikes. Kind of useless now.

Had the app open during a thunderstorm. Watched the map update with nearby strikes. Never received a notification of lightning in the area. I adjusted the radius multiple times but no change. Unable to report a problem because the link isn’t working. Update: notifications don’t sound when the app is open. Since I left my original review I’ve had to reset my phone and change some settings. The next storm came through and I received several notifications. I work outside so it is extremely helpful having this app to stay safe. Thanks for the app!