Global Historical Lightning Data - Sample

Analyzing historic lightning events helps you better understand and mitigate the risks to your people, property, and operations. Businesses use lightning data to improve the planning and management of safety-critical operations while reducing costly downtime.

Vaisala Xweather lightning data meets the needs of the energy, defense, maritime, construction, and insurance industries with best-in-class lightning data from its fully owned and operated global lightning detection networks.

This sample data set includes gridded historical lightning data for 1 year (2019) for an area of approximately 745,000 km2 covering parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mexico, and the Gulf of Mexico, and major cities such as Austin, Dallas, and Houston.

The complete dataset includes five years (2017-2021) of gridded lightning data for the entire globe including land and sea. Vaisala Xweather provides lighting data for any location, region, or geography. If you would like to purchase data, please contact us using the Contact Vaisala link in the listing.

Sample/Tables included:
LIGHTNING DENSITY SAMPLE

Fields included:
- YEAR
- LAT — latitude, defining the center of each 0.2° grid area
- LONG — longitude, defining the center of each 0.2° grid area
- DENSITY — the number of lightning events per square km per year

Suggested uses for business intelligence:
- Energy: evaluating locations for wind farms and solar power plants
- Land management: risk assessment for forest fires
- Defense: planning training operations
- Maritime: risk analysis and route planning
- Insurance: risk analysis, and claim assessments
- Meteorological agencies: thunderstorm and lightning climatology research

Data format and granularity:
Gridded lightning density data (lightning events per square km, per year), suitable for map display, analysis, research, and risk assessment. Each grid is 0.2 degrees of latitude by 0.2 degrees of longitude, which is about 22 km by 22 km at the equator, getting progressively smaller as you move toward the poles.

Each grid has a single lightning density value of events per square kilometer per year. Lightning events include cloud-to-ground strokes and in-cloud pulses, together called 'total lightning.'

The sample dataset includes gridded historical lightning data for 1 year (2019) for a region from 34° N, 102° W to 27° N, 92° W.

Sources
The dataset comes from the Global Lightning Detection Network (GLD360) and the U.S. National Lighting Detection Network (NLDN). These proprietary networks are owned and operated by Vaisala. Together, these networks detect more than 2 billion lightning events every year.

NLDN is the longest continuously operating and most scientifically validated lightning detection network in the world. NLDN has been the primary source of lightning information for major organizations including the National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, and the United States Air Force for more than 30 years. The largest electric power utilities in the United States use NLDN to help manage the reliability of their transmission and wind power assets.

Vaisala’s GLD360 is the only truly global lightning detection network and has been detecting lightning worldwide since 2009. GLD360 is the most advanced and accurate long-range lightning detection network in the world, instantly detecting lightning anywhere over land and sea. GLD360 is trusted by global organizations including the National Weather Service, the United States Navy, and the Deutscher Wetterdienst to provide real-time data for the accurate detection of lightning anywhere on the planet.