Lightning detector online.

Snowbie

My lightning detector is live online now.
I am in the early stages of building my website up and wanted to share with you my data for all to see.
As there is no Thunderstorms events atm,im sure most of you will appreciate that a future event will make it more interesting with a live sferics display.
I have it refeshing every minute and this is as live as you can get.
Just click on the screen and you can use a playback loop feature and zoom display.
If you have any comments or cant view the screen,let me know.
Just click on the link below in my signature.

Damomanye

You are a legend. What a great service your providing here. Thanks Snowbie

aidan_dunne

Great job, Snowbie! Great to see we finally have a live lightning detector that provides accurate information for this country at last. Best of luck with it.

Supercell

Nice work Snowbie - bet that gets busy tonight, fantastic resource, big thanks for sharing

Snowbie

My pleasure lads:)

Snowbie

Due to a noise problem around my area,i am taking my detector off line for the moment.As there is interference which is causing false readings.

Tabnabs

Fantastic site, well done.

For comparison, here's another one situated in Norway with a long range

http://www.lynradar.no/

Snowbie

That is the same software that runs both.Thats what i see from mine as i use to post screencaps to this site form a Dublin centred point.The difference is the one you see on my home page is that you can run a loop at the top of the screen recappturing the last hour and also you can zoom in closer.Its the stormvue applet.
The other one is screenshot i have on my pc which captures in realtime.
Lightning is at its most accurate to within 300km of where detector is placed,because of the curvature of the earth, accuracy subsides somewhat.

Tabnabs

So where is the transmitter for all these areas?

Snowbie

Transmitter??
There is an antanna located out my back yard that is cabled to a console(in my house)which in turn is hooked up to my PC.

For more info clck the link below.I use the ld-250.

http://www.boltek.com/

Snowbie

*Update*

After monumental interference problems from generators from a building site about half mile away,it seems the problem has gone after 6 months of local interference.Need time to recalibrate it but need thunderstorms for that.

At least my detector be back on line for summer storms.

Trogdor

Great news:D Your site will be the first i'll go to when i'm wondering how all the storms seem be bypassing me.
I'm also starting to pick up a bit of interferance on my vp2, every week or 2 weeks it will cut out for a half hour or so, really strange.

Snowbie

Could be a firmware problem your having on the vp2.If the vp2 was built before a certain date(i think Nov 05)the firmware needs updating,was a similar prob for a bloke on another forum i read too.

Also check if battery operated if needs changing or if your on mains check for a fault in the power surge or line conditioner,ups(could be browning or spiking).
These are usually the prob but i have read the exact as you posted as a problem for someone else.

Snowbie

Just added lightning to my weather display live part of my site.Instead of updating every minute it updates every 10 seconds only if a strike occurs,otherwise the info on screen is held untill new strikes occur.Im still fidling around with this atm so expect a bit of downtime.hit the lightning button down the bottom

http://www.irelandlivelightning.info/wdl.html

Just to add a brilliant introduction from astrogenic called SPARK.
SPARK Compact Lightning eXplorer is a Java MIDlet for mobile phones. SPARK.CLX works similarly to StormVue but is optimized for usage on small devices, in particular mobile phones and PDA, and has user initiated reloading of data as opposed to the automatic reloading in StormVue.
It looks a bit like this on my phone

http://www.astrogenic.com/img/spark/w810.png

Peanut

Hi Snowbie, is the lightning detector working ok at the moment?

There was a good bit of thunder/lightning here in the past 30 mins (west dublin/ne kildare) but I don't see any nearby activity on the map.

Cheers

Snowbie

Peanut wrote:

Hi Snowbie, is the lightning detector working ok at the moment?

There was a good bit of thunder/lightning here in the past 30 mins (west dublin/ne kildare) but I don't see any nearby activity on the map.

Cheers

Not atm.Need to do a lot of work configuring with the above settings.
Just as i posted last time my detector is failing to communicate with my server:( bloody typical with the day we have and all.

Peanut

Ok good luck with it!

Wertz

Seems to be doing the business now...

Snowbie

Yep,
I got the source of the problem finally.

looks like a lot going on down the road from you in the drogheda area or thereabouts

Snowbie

Snowbie wrote:

Not atm.Need to do a lot of work configuring with the above settings.
Just as i posted last time my detector is failing to communicate with my server:( bloody typical with the day we have and all.

Well it was the opposite.Already posted on TS thread.The antanna was not communicating with the software properly really ongoing for the last few months.False reading was starting to appear at random.Second sunday in a row this happened when things got lively typical:rolleyes:

Anyway antanna is bunched and instead of getting a replacement antanna which is far the more cheapest way of going about it,i bought the pci stormtracker instead.Same software you'll see on my basic website(soon to be upgraded after ill change my host) but with the added extra type lightning strokes.eg:+-cg and +-ic when lightning appears and info be on screen.

This is handy in a way as it be a bit more accurate for ranging purposes and detecting the weakest of signals and is more interesting.Not ditching the ld-250 in any way,it has served me well for 3 odd years.The 250 is used primarily as a storm chasing tool and uses a retrofit kit to usb on a com port on the desktop/laptop while the pci runs off the main bus and can decipher stroke types with software and capture most if not all strokes,especially the ones that alude me down in the SE of the country.Time will tell if it is the mtns that sponge the signal?
Anyway the more strokes that are captured the better the ranging and plotting.

So bit of a glitch atm and more expense.Should be back up and running come next weekend,if all goes to plan.
From your weather loon of a mod who should be buying kids clothes instead of buying lightning detectors.:eek:

rc28

Snowbie wrote:

Well it was the opposite.Already posted on TS thread.The antanna was not communicating with the software properly really ongoing for the last few months.False reading was starting to appear at random.Second sunday in a row this happened when things got lively typical:rolleyes:

Anyway antanna is bunched and instead of getting a replacement antanna which is far the more cheapest way of going about it,i bought the pci stormtracker instead.Same software you'll see on my basic website(soon to be upgraded after ill change my host) but with the added extra type lightning strokes.eg:+-cg and +-ic when lightning appears and info be on screen.

This is handy in a way as it be a bit more accurate for ranging purposes and detecting the weakest of signals and is more interesting.Not ditching the ld-250 in any way,it has served me well for 3 odd years.The 250 is used primarily as a storm chasing tool and uses a retrofit kit to usb on a com port on the desktop/laptop while the pci runs off the main bus and can decipher stroke types with software and capture most if not all strokes,especially the ones that alude me down in the SE of the country.Time will tell if it is the mtns that sponge the signal?
Anyway the more strokes that are captured the better the ranging and plotting.

So bit of a glitch atm and more expense.Should be back up and running come next weekend,if all goes to plan.
From your weather loon of a mod who should be buying kids clothes instead of buying lightning detectors.:eek:

Nice one snowbie, I still think met eireann should help you out as you are providing a pretty good and accurate service and no doubt they look at your website on days like yesterday:)

Snowbie

rc28 wrote:

Nice one snowbie, I still think met eireann should help you out as you are providing a pretty good and accurate service and no doubt they look at your website on days like yesterday:)

Met eireann have there own detector afaik.Where it is placed,what one they use i dont know.

There was a day like yesterday but more extensive TS and lightning strikes about 8 years or so ago.Most parts of the country if not all had a strike and Evelyn Cusak on the forecast had a pic of Ireland with these little red dots indicating where a strike was in the country that day,so i assume they have one.

rc28

Snowbie wrote:

Met eireann have there own detector afaik.Where it is placed,what one they use i dont know.

There was a day like yesterday but more extensive TS and lightning strikes about 8 years or so ago.Most parts of the country if not all had a strike and Evelyn Cusak on the forecast had a pic of Ireland with these little red dots indicating where a strike was in the country that day,so i assume they have one.

I never knew they had a detector, how come they dont share their data? What's holding them back? I never really understood why met agencies never share their stuff publicly like the radar network, it takes a private fee paying service(netweather) to sell the hi-res pics.

Snowbie

But dont quote me on that,i am guessing they do but i could be wrong.No one told me they do, just going on from what i saw and presumed so.That just my analysis on that.

how come they dont share their data? What's holding them back? I never really understood why met agencies never share their stuff publicly

Agree,otherwise whats the use in me geting a detector.Could have saved me a lot of money.;)
A disclaimer i think the reason not for protection of life and property.It could become messy if lightning where to inflict damage to someone or something and was not to show up on the site,well then it could be a legal matter against a met organisation,me thinks.Makes sense in a way.Just my 2c.

Yes Met Éireann do have a detector in glasnevin.DapperGent told me about it a while back.

Bracknell and the london weather centre have them too and don't share the information publically but I'd imagine it is exchanged with other met organisations and meterologica (sp).
Look at it this way, it's a tool they use to track storms and forecast intensities.They make money on some forecasts so it's not in their interests to make it all publically available.

Trogdor

Tristrame wrote:

Yes Met Éireann do have a detector in glasnevin.DapperGent told me about it a while back.

Bracknell and the london weather centre have them too and don't share the information publically but I'd imagine it is exchanged with other met organisations and meterologica (sp).
Look at it this way, it's a tool they use to track storms and forecast intensities.They make money on some forecasts so it's not in their interests to make it all publically available.

Yes, but they're state funded, surely therefore all data should be freely available as we are all paying or it with our tax money(not me or rc anyway;), but most on here). As for being sued, they could have a system where you have to register to see the data and when you do, you have to accept terms and conditions where you agree that it will not be used for protection of life or property ect. and that it may not be completely accurate.

Snowbie

Just to add to this,expected shipping date is set for the 16th July(next Monday),its usually 3 days and then back to the calibration again.Pain in the neck the calibrating end of things.

Trogdor

trogdor wrote:

Yes, but they're state funded, surely therefore all data should be freely available as we are all paying or it with our tax money(not me or rc anyway;), but most on here). As for being sued, they could have a system where you have to register to see the data and when you do, you have to accept terms and conditions where you agree that it will not be used for protection of life or property ect. and that it may not be completely accurate.

I sent them an e-mail and got an interesting reply.
Appearantly, a few years ago they were asked by a minister to try to recoup some of the money lost through maintaining all the equipment and services, so they had to make some of there data and services commercial. Also, don't know who's right, Tristrame/Dappergent or them, but they say they don't have a lightning detector.
"I must also clarify that Met Éireann does not have any lightning detection system in place but relies on the services put in place by other NMSs. The outputs from these systems are distributed to NMSs as part of the global co-operation between NMSs throughout the world."
NMS=National Meteorological Service

Snowbie

trogdor wrote:

Also, don't know who's right, Tristrame/Dappergent or them, but they say they don't have a lightning detector.
"I must also clarify that Met Éireann does not have any lightning detection system in place but relies on the services put in place by other NMSs. The outputs from these systems are distributed to NMSs as part of the global co-operation between NMSs throughout the world."
NMS=National Meteorological Service

I have been speaking to Dappergent about this and he said when he use to work in the forecasting division in Glasnevin,there was little he done with sferics and instrumentation(only dealing with feeds at the end) and so not aware of a detector in place at the service.Most of the feeds came from Bracknell in the UK and he was'nt sure met eireann had a detector nor has he heard of a detector in place within the service from colleagues.

Funny that
Though I havent been speaking to Dapper about it in a while,he did complain that they didnt pick up sferics we had here.
I never clarified whether it was a glasnevin detector he was refering to.
I just assumed it was as the way he phrased it was that he must give the machine a kick.

So there isn't one then?

Snowbie

Apparently not countrywide and as per trogdor's returned mail from the service clarifying same.
Im just as surprised.

Wertz

No detector? Laughable really. They can't cost that much....or is snowbie a euromillion's winner?

Snowbie

Yep 2+1 star last week.:cool:

Snowbie

Detector has shipped and be with me hopefully thursday.
BTW my site has changed and new url is

www.irlweather.com

this is where you can access my lightning detector from in the near future.

Snowbie

Got the new detector this morning.Have it installed and now just have to find a better location for my antanna indoors,preferably at the highest point in my house in the attic.Will take awhile in testing to get the best location but should be back on line by the weekend.

rc28

Snowbie wrote:

Got the new detector this morning.Have it installed and now just have to find a better location for my antanna indoors,preferably at the highest point in my house in the attic.Will take awhile in testing to get the best location but should be back on line by the weekend.

Good to hear, thanks snowbie. Well done on the new website too.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Good, good., hopefully there will be plenty of thunderystorms to test it on.

Snowbie

So far so good,its communicating with pc as i have my antanna installed temporarily in my wardrobe untill i get the time to locate it higher.It is picking up sfreics in the sea and the one that woke us all up here by the coast.

At least now we can see what type of stroke is coming from a lightning flash.
But untill i can place antanna higher,a simple light switch being turned on in my house will pick that up as a flash of lightning again will be eliminated when ill place it in the attic.Enjoy.

Snowbie

Installed in attic and is approx 32feet above ground level giving it a range of nearly 600km but more accurate within 500km.As it took a long time to calibrate and try to accurately range last detector,i need storms to tweak a few settings.As i noticed already the height is finding sferics over southern UK and channel which was very reluctant to do before as it was mounted outside on pvc piping at 12ft.Hope its new height is enough to eliminate the mountains sponging the signal and to detect the convective south east storms over MM and Tristrame which often i couldn detect.

Edit:Need your help.It be much quicker and helpful if i got your location,time and your strikes overhead to quicken up configuration.I have a replay function which i can go by to configure past data if im away from PC so time is important and very close lightning strike to your area(believe me its a very complex piece of equipment).In the past i had to go by radar but as most of you know lightning can strike without rain.This will cut short my time to configure dispaly for you and myself.Almost 2 years on last detector calibrating due to lack of storms.

Takeshi_Kovacs

Snowbie wrote:

Installed in attic and is approx 32feet above ground level giving it a range of nearly 600km but more accurate within 500km.As it took a long time to calibrate and try to accurately range last detector,i need storms to tweak a few settings.As i noticed already the height is finding sferics over southern UK and channel which was very reluctant to do before as it was mounted outside on pvc piping at 12ft.Hope its new height is enough to eliminate the mountains sponging the signal and to detect the convective south east storms over MM and Tristrame which often i couldn detect.

Edit:Need your help.It be much quicker and helpful if i got your location,time and your strikes overhead to quicken up configuration.I have a replay function which i can go by to configure past data if im away from PC so time is important and very close lightning strike to your area(believe me its a very complex piece of equipment).In the past i had to go by radar but as most of you know lightning can strike without rain.This will cut short my time to configure dispaly for you and myself.Almost 2 years on last detector calibrating due to lack of storms.

Yeah i was thinking that could be a problem with calibrating your detector, lack of thundery storms here in Ireland. Hopefully though we will have some more again shortly for you test it on. Maybe you could go on to uk weather forums, and maybe get some help from people in England within range of the detector. Should increase your chances of catching a storm.

Snowbie

Any storms thats east of me(Irish sea and UK)are not a problem as im apart of the strikestar network and is therefore easy to calibrate.This is a triangulated network that takes data from several detectors and pinpoints the accuracy down to the meter.Its our own storms im more concerned about as accuracy subsides after a couple of hundered kms(again depending on height of antanna etc).Im the most west based detector and with the detector in Morecombe UK will have trouble finding your sparks down in Kerry.

Here is a map of the sites.

Would it help if I installed one down here and what is it going to cost me?

Snowbie

The help im looking for is for calibrating end of things.You received a lightning strike,say within a mile from you,all anyone has to do is tell me the time/location of the strike and ill do the rest.After testing yesterday there was in fact 2 cells,one over Limerick and a couple of strikes down in Kerry and over Norfolk in UK.I picked them up and ranged the UK cells with the use of other detectors but its how far off i am in Ireland i dont know yet.It wont be a million miles off but if i had the help of users on this forum,it would speed up the process a lot quicker.One off calibrating and thats it then.

There is no need for you to go through unneccesary expenditure (unless you want to yourself of course)but its your area that has seem to be blinded by the mountains(as mountains create alot of reflection with siganl) on my side but only time will tell if my added antanna height will be enough.

rc28

There's a chance you might get to try out thhe detector over the next few days according to the forecast;
http://www.met.ie/#

Snowbie

rc28 wrote:

Did today's lightning help you calibrate your detector? There seems to be more detail in this new one, is there or am I imagining things?

I got 1335 strikes in Ireland today and maxed at 1557 detected across both us and the UK(most here in Ireland)
250 strikes (mainly intracloud around the NW quadrant) with only 56 CG+ recorded for the day countrywide.Pulse type storms only.

At one time after replaying my archive for the entire day the detector was recording 5 different cells around the country around 4pm (including 1 over the south Irish sea too)As the consistency of lightning today the ranging adapted to where the cells actually where occuring without my interference or calibrating and so i was pleased with it.The more strikes from a particular cell the more accurate it becomes(say from 10strikes+) Low sporadic strikes dont fair well at all,unless triangulated.

Today was just a moderate outbreak pulse type stuff.Its the true surface heating on a still hot summers day severe storm that im awaiting to pinpoint accurately.You know the ones when there is a lot of CG+

With the antanna and pci card it decipher the stroke type be it weak,strong IC or CG.I witnessed 3 sheet lightning overhead today and detector classed two of them as -IC and one +IC and so happy with that.

rc28

This is off topic but I didn't know where else to put it;
Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

Weather BOFH

rc28 wrote:

Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

I've been thinking about ordering from here:

http://www.meteo-shop.eu/

They have pricing in Euro and they deliver to Ireland for just €6 extra, only thing is you have to pay by cheque or wire transfer, but only after you receive the goods.

rc28

Thanks but by wire transfer do you mean plain old credit card? I'd prefer a site that just accepts credit card as normal.

Strasser

rc28 wrote:

This is off topic but I didn't know where else to put it;
Does anyone know of a good website (that delivers to ireland) for weather stuff like rain guages etc? I'd really like a wireless rain guage which also records the rainfall rate, anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

I have got some stuff from here before
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/
it was a few years ago but I persume they're still ok, they look good anyway.

Weather BOFH

rc28 wrote:

Thanks but by wire transfer do you mean plain old credit card? I'd prefer a site that just accepts credit card as normal.

No, you'd have to go to a bank to transfer the money to their account, most of them (including mine) won't even let you do it online unfortunately!

UK Weather Shop take credit cards but they are a bit pricier than the other place.

Edit: Strasser beat me to it!

rc28

Thanks, in the following link does the cheaper rain gauge show the hourly rate eg 15mm/hr?:
http://www.ukweathershop.co.uk/acatalog/oregon_scientific_rain_sub.html#aOS_2dRGR682