the device doesn’t measure direction. It gives you a warning when the storm is approaching. it might not go directly over your location. For that info you’ll need a very fancy detector. You radar app probably has (indirect) access to those.
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In addition to what @sunny said, the location of a lightning strike is a very poor indicator of storm location and motion. It can come from any part of the storm … and can also strike up to 10+ miles away from whetrre it emanated from the thunderstorm.
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Not a big deal. I’m a dreamer/thinker & as a new station owner, I just wanted to try out ‘feature request’. Yes, ‘My Radar’ shows thunderstorm location & movement… even though weather conditions sometimes change rapidly. Knowing location/direction of movement just gives me additional info to prepare or do what is needed ‘if’ it’s likely to pass overhead. I haven’t seen where Tempest states storm is approaching my location, so I’ll look deeper next time one is detected. The last one that was announced, the distance did decrease over time but it passed well south of us & not even the pooch was aware. The BIG bonus for us is the upfront knowledge, so we can let the dog out before he hears it & then refuses to go out. Prevents a potential unpleasant ‘cleanup’ chore if it’s a long duration event.
it should work good enough for your dog, though you might let your dog out early for nothing. Not a big problem.
If you want a fancy lightning detector, have a look at blitzortung.org. They might start producing their blue system again. You’ll have to fill out a form to have a change of buying one.
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I almost wish that we had that problem with ours. Blizzard the OCD psycho weather dog goes absolutely bonkers if he hears thunder or sees a flash of lightning, and will let himself outside through his electronic pet door and try to bite the lightning until he’s soaked to the bone! For years, my wife and I had to dash through the house to turn the dog door off before he could get to it, because there was no hope of getting him back inside if he got out.
One of the first home automations that I set up was to turn the dog door’s inside sensor off if either Blitzortung or WF detected lightning within 32 miles of our house, and then turn it back on an hour after the last lightning strike is received…
FWIW - I’d suggest you don’t rely on the WF lightning sensors at all. Really. I had stuff literally shaking the house and it detected nothing. Yet I got all kinds of readings from many many miles away on obviously clear and lightning-free days. The sensors and magic-math generated readings are just.not.good.
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I know it seems to be a ‘maybe your grandchildren will be able to get one someday’ wait time, but how is the Blitzortung working out for you ?
Yep, yours is CRAZY. LOL. Our dogger is a rescue & may have spent years outside in the weather building up his fear. He didn’t even know how to climb stairs. I had to show him how on all fours. He doesn’t shake or whimper during thunderstorms, but we can tell he’s nervous. He paces around & looks for a place to hide. Me, I love dangerous weather. I’ve walked around in hurricanes with trees toppling & walked on the beach at a 45 degree angle to counteract the breeze. We’ve driven over downed power lines & once drove 300 miles during whiteout blizzard conditions to visit a zoo. Okay, I know I’m as nuts as your pooch 
Live Long & Prosper,
KenM
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It (station 2603) is frequently on the first page of their most-used report, and sometimes at the top of the list.
You don’t need to be a station owner to use the HA integration…or the iPhone app for that matter. You can also define the alert radius and move the center of the circle in the phone app…
Over the years I’ve developed a trust level with MyRadar providing a cost-effective free service. The downside is I do not receive notification of incoming lightning. Tempest provides the notification & MyRadar provides a free confirmation of position & direction with just a click or two. What I was suggesting in this feature request was a potentially beneficial parternership combining the capabilities of both companies that also benefits us. It shouldn’t be that technically difficult if a business agreement can be achieved. I understand that it could not match the capabilties of a high priced solution & I wouldn’t expect it to. At this price level, simple is a good thing.
For those having MyRadar (not an option in the EU), look on the map, some new mushrooms should start to pop up.
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Since I am not familiar with MyRadar, what does it provide that other weather radar apps do not provide? Storm motion based on radar is commonly provided by many of the better radar apps. The radar computed storm motion is a much better indicator than anything you would get from lightning detection (again, since lightning can come out of pretty much any part of the storm and can strike up to 10+ miles away from the storm). So, even if lightning is detected miles south (or north or some other direction) of your location, the next bolt could easily be much closer.
Just last week, I was in Illinois when a storm passed over us and had moved well past us … and then lightning struck about 100 yards from us.
I mentioned MyRadar because I prefer it more than the others I’ve tried & it’s available for my use for free. It’s obviously not the only web based radar app on the planet. My feature request was to provide more value to customers. I don’t care how they actually accomplish it. The Tempest app is fine as it is but constant improvement to seperate oneself from competition is a good thing.
Can’t disagree with any of what you say. Weather prediction/forecasting has never been without errors/unanticipated outcomes… they do the best they can & for now, we accept it with a grain of salt.
Yes, not without errors/unanticipated outcomes (although, technology has helped reduce some of that). What I am trying to say (and maybe doing a poor job of) is that, if you have radar and you have lightning, and you are trying to infer stom motion, you pretty much can’t with lightning because of the unpredictability of strike location. But, with radar, you can infer storm motion and you can get a pretty good result (still not guaranteed since storms do split and turn and dissipate and strengthen which affects motion estimates). Also, according to Radar Type : MyRadar there is a way to plot lightning strikes on MyRadar (not sure if this is a premium feature, old info, out of date, etc., since it is not my go to app).
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You’re good & I grok your meaning. Storm movement loosely predicts lightning activity & given Tempest’s claims of 26 mile detection, it’s still valuable to me as it usually exceeds lightnings ‘unpredictability’ & strikes that can be a bit beyond the storms perimeter. BTW, that range was proven twice in the 2 weeks as an owner of this tool. Letting my dog out b4 he feels the need to piss on the floor is not the same urgency as a golfer out on the greens, but nevertheless… Concerning MyRadar, lighting strikes, their density & movement are visually available on the free version. It also shows where fires are located, both very small & large as well as volcanoes. The app also shows smoke pollution areas in 3 levels from (Canadian or other US) wildfires. It also shows earthquakes & their magnitude/depth & ‘precise’ location. I’ve tried/used many radar apps & MyRadar is now my goto. I can understand why Tempest may be reluctant to add such a feature as some might attempt to hold them responsible for consequences if mistakes are made (no fault of theirs as I see it). Thx for the reply.
to be able to do TOA, you need extra super fine timestamps (like 6 to 9 digits) after the second. None of the Tempest devices has a GPS module allowing such precise timestamps. You need on average like 9 to 12 signals (stations) to compare and try to triangulate … you need specialised detectors for this.
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Understood. I have to assume radar apps get their data from sources with appropriate equipment or own their own. I don’t want Tempest to upgade their harware & increase the cost of buying their stations. Perhaps they can simply team up with those folks & publish results to everyones advantage. Yes, speed of light/EMP is very fast. Very high tech precision like atomic clocks.
One of WF-T’s core businesses that pays to keep their lights on is operating a commercial lightning network:
https://business.tempest.earth/lightning-data-solution
TempestOne Lightning Data Solution
Lifesaving lightning data and alerts.
With more than 500 industrial-grade sensors and over 55,000 local sensors, the Tempest Lightning Network (TLN) is built to provide high-value, rapid alerts and safety solutions. When lightning strikes, let TLN be the first source for lightning data and alerts.
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You could integrate a lot of measurements from all kind of devices, and combine them with computer models to give you an all purpose weather app (but it would be hard to satisfy all users even with such an app)
Tempest however, is a weather station, it gives you measured data from its location. That’s just different. Perhaps one could write a different app that tries to show the tempest data on top of the all purpose weather app.
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