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Thunderstorm radar. Online maps of the thunderstorm that is heading towards Belarus

They say nature has no bad weather. Nevertheless, a thunderstorm and rain outside the window can ruin many of our plans, bringing inconvenience and discomfort into our lives. Trying to predict the weather for a given period, we turn to network services that offer online weather forecasts. Most often we are interested in the forecast of thunderstorms and precipitation, and below we will look at which services will show us a map of thunderstorms online, and how to work with them.

Online thunderstorm map - specifics of network services

There are a sufficient number of resources on the Internet that offer users an online map of thunderstorms. These resources are free, have a regularly updated dynamic map, and are often volunteer-based. The built-in Russian-language interface makes working with them convenient for a Russian-speaking user.

Working with them will not create any problems even for beginners. The home screen has a convenient text menu that allows you to switch between different forms of weather display (thunderstorm, hail, wind, rain, clouds, snow, temperature, etc.). Using the mouse or the search function, you will need to find the desired geographic region on the map and turn on the weather display form that interests you at the moment.

When registering on such resources, you receive additional bonuses: information about weather changes in a particular region, the opportunity to participate in the volunteer movement, the latest news from the resource, and so on.

Volunteer equipment for creating a local weather station

Let's look at network services that provide an online map of thunderstorm activity.

Blitzortung.org – online volunteer meteorological project

Blitzortung.org is a network for detecting thunderstorms and lightning, based on many VLF receivers scattered around the world. The number of stations with such receivers is more than 500; data from them is sent to computer servers, where the information is processed, summarized, and transmitted to Blitzortung. Almost all people employed on this resource are volunteers working on a voluntary basis. The project has a popular subsidiary implementation hosted on the lightningmaps.org resource.

The resource is available at ru.blitzortung.org. To obtain information about weather and thunderstorms, you can use: common map world, and select a specific continent or region on the left. In the menu at the top, archived data for the date requested by the user is available.

Windy.com - online wind and thunderstorm map

Lover of kites, helicopters, and jet aircraft Czech millionaire Ivo Lukačović created the Windy.com precipitation and thunderstorm map in 2014 as part of his home entertainment web programming. Since then, the project has acquired a significant meteorological base, agreements have been reached with a number of similar projects (“Meteoblue”), the staff has been replenished with qualified programmers, Android and iOS versions resource. GFS and NEMS were chosen as the main weather forecasting models. There is also support for the Russian language.

Launch windy.com, enter the name of the region you need in the search bar on the left, and select the “Rain, thunderstorm” option on the right.
Just below you can switch between the ICON, ECMWF and GFS forecasting models.
In the very bottom line you can see how the weather will change over the next 10 days.

Weather from Yandex online

The Yandex company operates in many digital spheres, and the weather service was developed by Yandex quite a long time ago. The weather service from Yandex makes it possible to switch between forms of displaying precipitation, lightning, temperature, wind, pressure, thunderstorms, and even the concentration of pollen in the air (which will be useful for allergy sufferers). Here you can view both the weather forecast for the next 3 hours at intervals of 10 minutes, and for the next 10 days and month.

Log in to yandex.ru/pogoda, enter the name of the desired one in the search bar settlement, select the “Precipitation” option at the top.

Ventusky.com - allows you to view the movement of thunderstorms in real time

The “Ventusky” project was created by the Czech meteorology company “InMeteo” together with two enthusiasts – Moizik and Prantl. The name of the resource comes from the Latin “ventusky”, which translates as “wind”. This resource provides fairly accurate meteorological indicators, displaying weather changes around the globe. The service works on a variety of weather indicators (precipitation, lightning, cloudiness, wind speed and gusts, atmospheric pressure, thunderstorms, humidity, etc.), and is considered one of the most popular resources of this plan.

Go to ventusky.com, select the desired region in the search bar, as well as the weather display form on the left.
At the very bottom you can view the weather forecast for the near future.
And clicking on the “App” button will give you the opportunity to download the mobile application of the same name to your smartphone.

The brainchild of the Czech company InMeteo - the Ventusky project

Rainviewer.com – private project map of a domestic enthusiast

The founder, inspirator and implementer of the Rainviewer project is domestic programmer Alexey Schastlivy, who developed the thunderstorm website rainviewer.com and the corresponding mobile applications. The precipitation map is designed to provide its user with the most an accurate map precipitation, collecting and organizing information from radars around the world. The site systematically scans sources of radar information, processes and systematizes them, and then displays the information on a map posted on the resource.

When you go to rainviewer.com you will see a map that scrolls with the mouse.
By clicking on the “Play” button at the top you can track latest changes in the weather.
And the “Options” button will allow you to customize the display specifics.

Conclusion

The resources listed above are some of the highest quality, allowing you to display a map of thunderstorms in real time with good level graphic component. I would especially recommend paying attention to the Windy and Ventusky resources - their capabilities are valued by meteorology professionals and enthusiasts around the world.

Minsk resident Viktor Barchenko knows exactly where and when a thunderstorm will begin in the world. He is the first and so far the only person in Belarus to assemble a lightning direction finder - a receiving station for determining the coordinates of atmospheric discharges, registered on the online service Blitzortung.org. The owner himself spoke about why an IT specialist needs to catch lightning and why it is easier to detect bad weather in Madagascar than in Central Europe.

The online service Blitzortung.org is a non-profit network of receiving stations around the world installed by enthusiasts. Direction finders detect lightning discharges and transmit data to a central server, where the coordinates of the flashes are calculated based on the time the signal arrived. The more stations that detect lightning and the closer they are located, the more accurate the location.

“It was necessary to feed the brain with a problem”

IN ordinary life Victor Barchenko is a technical director at the IT company FP Trade. But in his heart he remained faithful to the radio engineering education of his native BSUIR. After a working day at the office, the man goes to a village near Minsk, where he stores equipment for monitoring lightning discharges in a workshop.

The direction finder is not the first project to come out of his hands. About a year ago, Victor, at his own expense, created a Flightradar receiver that allows real-time tracking of aircraft positions. The man installed the device on the roof of his office building.

- The device was from the series “order a piece of hardware, install it, and it will work.” But life threw up many difficulties. For example, for safety reasons, it is prohibited to conduct 220 volts to the roof of a building without special permission. Therefore, together with a friend, we developed a custom system where power was supplied using Power Over Ethernet technology. We also protected the receiver with a hermetically sealed box and installed two thermostats responsible for heating and cooling. As a result, the device survived the fall, winter and spring, began to work well and ended up somewhere in 300th place among ten thousand other Flightradar receivers around the world. It was interesting to think about fixing problems. But when I realized that it was over, it became boring again. It was necessary to feed the brains with some problem. And then I remembered about Blitzortung.org,- Victor explains.

Silent noise

The cost of a lightning direction finder is not that high - within 500 euros. Requires an antenna system, VLF amplifier, controller board and GPS receiver. Almost everything can be ordered in Germany from the creator of the Blitzortung project, Egon Wijk. However, due to high duties on parcels from abroad, Victor decided that it would be easier and cheaper to deliver the equipment himself.

- Brought here by plane. The old Flightradar box didn’t fit, so I went to Vilnius and bought a new one. We don't sell this. Well, or you need to try to find it. In the conditions of Belarusian reality, the main thing is to come to the store and collect what you need from the available assortment,- the enthusiast says half jokingly, half seriously.

The result is obvious. Thus, an electric antenna located on the roof of a workshop is packaged in a piece of sewer pipe. The magnetic antenna is attached to two plastic plates from under flowerpots. But the creator is concerned not with the aesthetic, but with the functional side of the device. After all, it is planned that the direction finder will be installed in the open air within the city.

The main problem lies in the sensitivity of the station to noise. Even simply turning on a nearby light bulb causes a burst of noise. What can we say about big city, stuffed with electronics.

- You see, the monitor displays three channels from the magnetic antenna, plus one more from the electric one. In fact, every splash is a lightning strike. The farthest lightning we detected was in the middle Pacific Ocean- 8770 km from us. The closest is 2.2 km. And if there is too much interference, we will stop seeing distant discharges, only close ones. This will lead to a loss of adaptability. After all, how does the station work? She listens to the broadcast, cranking up the amplifiers to the noise level, and adjusts to them. To see further, we need a lower noise level above which we can hear the discharge. So the city is not best place to accommodate such equipment,- Victor complains.

To check, the man placed the direction finder on the same office roof. But the noise level was too high for normal operation. Now Victor is thinking about who to contact to install a station on a high point outside the city. Of course, I would like to attract mobile operators to cooperation and agree with them to install equipment on a suburban cellular tower. But, unfortunately, this often means inevitable advertising - for example, adding the name of the operator to the “Minsk” point on the Blitzortung website. And the man is against using his brainchild for commercial purposes. He is no less skeptical about the proposal to ask for help from the Belarusian weather services:

- Why? Weather services have radar that shows clouds (whether thunderstorm or non-thunderstorm) and they think that's enough. The radar is updated every 15 minutes, and here everything is displayed in real time. Friends suggested raising money through crowdfunding, but I decided that first I should test the direction finder in a city environment. I didn’t want to upset investors with a non-functioning or poorly functioning device.

"For what? For the soul"

Victor displays a map of the world on the monitor, where lightning strikes are marked with colored dots. Thin lines lead to stations that received the signal. While in Europe and North America the terrain is literally dotted with direction finder marks, in the CIS there are only one or two of them.

- In Kazakhstan, just a little, in Ukraine only three... In Lithuania, not a single one. Most stations are in Germany. But in Finland there are not very many of them, but there is not a huge amount of interference from enterprises: this country has a “clean” power grid and very good reception. I'm even a little jealous- the man smiles. - But we also hear thunderstorms from all over Europe, only from the central part it’s difficult to travel, the mountains get in the way. Good reception - from the Pacific Ocean, we can still see it over Madagascar. Install a second station in Belarus? Why? It would be cooler to install it in the Urals region, since there are no instruments there and the signal is hard to hear.

Victor admits that the last thing he thinks about is the benefit from the direction finder:

- The most terrible question is “why do you need this?” People don't understand that you can do something for nothing. For the soul. But in general, there are benefits for Belarus. If the weather radar only shows the possibility of a thunderstorm, then the direction finder allows you to declare with full responsibility that there will definitely be a thunderstorm. I see the discharges, their intensity. I won't be caught off guard. At least, if any fisherman, sitting on the river, sees from this thing that a thunderstorm front is coming, he will understand: it’s time to roll up his carbon fiber fishing rod and quietly run.

Victor cannot predict what will happen to the station in the future. But he is already thinking about his next project. If the first was aimed at tracking aircraft, the second at tracking lightning, then the third will go beyond the atmosphere. The man plans to purchase a wide-range receiver, assemble a radio telescope and receive signals from space.

You can monitor lightning discharges in real time

There are numerous services that provide comprehensive information about thunderstorm activity in a specific area in real time.

As a rule, such services have very accurate information.

Online services can monitor thunderstorms around the world, or in a specific country. But this does not change the essence.

The user receives accurate and up-to-date information about all weather anomalies.

By the way, there are also maps of winds, clouds and other things, implemented according to the same principle.

However, it is most critical for the user to know when a thunderstorm can be expected and what its strength will be. This way you can be safe and postpone planned events.

Contents:

Services providing such information

At the moment, there are quite a few online services that provide a map of thunderstorms in real time. But not all of them can meet the user's needs.

Therefore, you need to choose the best ones.

Service name	Forecast for (number of days)	Location	Lightning display	Weather warnings
Blitzortung.org	30	The whole world	Yes	Yes
windy.com	30	The whole world	No	Yes
Eustormmap.com	90	Europe	Yes	Yes
Lightningmaps.org	10	The whole world	Yes	Yes
Yandex.Weather	10	Russia and CIS countries	No	Yes

All of the above services are capable of informing the user about thunderstorm fronts to one degree or another. Many of them also provide other information. Now we need to look at all these services in more detail.

Blitzortung.org

Probably the most popular online service for getting up-to-date thunderstorm information.

It can be used to track storm fronts around the world. This service operates solely on the sheer enthusiasm of users.

It is users who collect information about weather conditions around the world and analyze it.

The project itself only summarizes the collected information and presents it in the form of a visual picture, updated every second.

The service can also display lightning. Moreover, there is its own classification.

White color indicates lightning that has just been recorded. And in red are those that have long been noticed and registered.

The resource is also able to provide information about storms. Again, data on these weather events is provided solely by users from around the world. This is probably the reason for the high accuracy of the service’s forecast.

always accurate and up-to-date information;
Russian language available;
graphic display of lightning;
processing information from multiple sources;
the opportunity to participate in the creation of a thunderstorm map;
no advertising content;
no need to pay for information;
nice design;
quick change of picture when weather conditions change;
You can see the forecast for several days.

was not noticed.

User reviews

Users believe that this particular online service can be called ideal. People especially like the colorful display of lightning.

It’s good that there is a system for ranking lightning strikes by statute of limitations. For many users this is relevant.

No matter how strange it may sound, we could not find a single negative review about this service.

Yes, it is not very good at predicting the weather for a certain number of days, but it is intended for something completely different. And the service fulfills its main task one hundred percent.

The service will not only inform you about the onset of thunderstorms, but also predict the direction of the thunderstorm front.

Video:

windy.com

A service for displaying weather conditions in a particular area in real time.

It was created by Czech developers and can provide weather alerts around the globe. It can also display a map of lightning and thunderstorms.

However, this service is still “tailored” to display the weather. Therefore, it does not show thunderstorms very reliably.

However, advanced algorithms for analyzing incoming information do their job. The information provided is comprehensive.

Several information sources are used to display the necessary information.

However, users have no influence on the quality of the data provided. This is a proprietary system. With all the ensuing consequences.

The service has a very convenient management system. It allows you to select both the location and the type of data provided.

You can also find out the approximate weather forecast for 30 days. However, you shouldn't trust him too much.

a colorful map of weather conditions in a certain area;
wind map;
thunderstorm map;
the ability to get an approximate forecast;
lack of advertising content;
all information is absolutely free;
Availability of Russian language;
intuitive interface;
nice design;
fast service;
monitoring changes in weather conditions in real time.

inaccurate display of thunderstorms;
not very accurate 30-day forecast;
Sometimes you have to manually search for a location.

User reviews

The vast majority of users are satisfied with the service.

Especially praised this resource those who need to know all the weather features in the area, and not just the possibility of thunderstorms and showers. High accuracy of data in this case is noted.

However, the Internet community is massively complaining about the unstable operation of the service.

Very often the resource turns out to be unavailable. The administration blames everything on competitors. But how things really are is unknown.

This service is also suitable for monitoring thunderstorms. But in terms of the relevance of information, it is noticeably inferior to Blitzortung.org.

Eustormmap.com

This resource helps track thunderstorms across Europe. However, other locations are not available.

But there are even sound notifications about an approaching storm. This is what makes the service attractive.

But there is one “but”: the information is very doubtful in terms of reliability.

This project is proprietary, and the developers do not disclose from which sources the data was obtained. However, the service is actively used.

There are no particularly beautiful pictures in the design, but the interface is well thought out and is replete with graphs, dots and other necessary attributes. You can select a specific location and see what is happening there at a given period of time.

The service works quite quickly. The algorithm for analyzing incoming data inspires confidence. However, there are complaints about service failures in one location or another.

And many would like to see a colorful display of the area, and not boring “contour maps”.

advanced data analysis algorithm;
thoughtful and intuitive interface;
possible weather forecast for 90 days for the selected location;
thunderstorm map;
lightning display;
no advertising content;
nice design;
of the locations only European areas;
temperature map;
flexible settings.

information requires verification;
Location display is not always correct;
lack of Russian language in the interface.

User reviews

It is worth noting that this service is used exclusively by residents of the European continent. And positive reviews are heard only from them.

They note the fast operation of the resource and a clear picture of the weather conditions of a particular location. The display of thunderstorms also pleased many.

However, there are also negative reviews. There are at least a few cases where the service was wrong in its forecasts.

And not only in thunderstorms and storms, but also in ordinary weather forecasts. Therefore, some users do not recommend using it.

However, Eustormmap.com is still operating successfully and has regular customers.

If you need to quickly view the weather situation in real time, then this resource is quite suitable.

Lightningmaps.org

This service is almost an exact copy of the above-described Blitzortung.org. Moreover, this resource uses weather data from this particular service.

Therefore, thunderstorm maps here are usually accurate and comprehensive.

The interface is painfully reminiscent of Blitzortung. This is not surprising. After all, the resource is made on the same engine.

The set of functions is exactly the same. There is also a lightning display. And the classification of these celestial phenomena is exactly the same.

The service can provide an accurate weather forecast for 10 days. This is a very good option. It is also possible to track thunderstorms, storms and just rain around the world. Since the data is taken from another resource, there is no doubt about its accuracy. After all, they are accurate there.

It is not entirely clear why this service was created. Probably in order to relieve Blitzortung.org.

After all, due to the influx of users, it is experiencing serious overload.

If so, then the developers failed. Lightningmaps' client base is very meager.

use of Blitzortung.org data and data analysis algorithms;
intuitive interface;
simple and pleasant design;
ten-day weather forecast;
real-time lightning display;
high data accuracy;
flexible interface settings;
various locations;
no advertising content;
fast work in any conditions;
alerts in case of sudden changes in weather conditions;
proven service engine.

there is no Russian language in the interface;
the picture is not colorful enough;
emphasis on lightning rather than thunderstorms.

Today, July 11, most of Belarus will experience a severe thunderstorm. There will be rain, hail and strong winds possible. Forecasters declared an orange level of danger.

Lightning is a very fascinating spectacle if you watch it from afar, for example, via the Internet. Here are several services that will help you assess the scale of the disaster and not get wet.

Blitzortung

Data on each discharge recorded by weather stations. Information appears almost immediately - with a delay of six seconds. The white mark here is the area of the registered fresh discharge. The redder it is, the more time has passed.

Lightning Maps

The same data as in the previous service, combined with Google maps. You can, for example, watch lightning strike on your street or approach your dacha.

Yandex.Weather

The Yandex service can show where it is raining right now, how heavy it is and what will happen in the next two hours. True, this map does not work for the whole of Belarus - online you can monitor precipitation only in the Mogilev, Vitebsk and part of the Gomel regions.

Thunderstorms and lightning are a very fascinating sight if you watch them from afar, for example, via the Internet. Here are several online services that will help you assess the scale of the disaster and avoid getting wet.

Lightning Maps

The same data as in the previous service, combined with Google maps. You can, for example, watch lightning strike on your street or approach your dacha.

Windy

Animation with wind speed and direction - you can see in real time where it is windiest right now. The warmer the shade, the stronger the wind.

Sat24

How the clouds have been moving for the last two hours is clearly visible in the animation made from satellite images.

Yandex.Weather

Radareu

This map shows the radar reflectivity of the atmosphere—essentially the amount of precipitation. Minimum ( blue) - clear weather, maximum (red or burgundy) - heavy hail and snow. New data arrives every 10 minutes, and you can watch an accelerated animation for a period of half an hour to six hours.