Active Weather for the West, Warming in the East

The potential for heavy snow at higher elevations in the western U.S. will continue for many spots through the weekend. In the meantime, the eastern half of the continental U.S. will transition to above normal temperatures ahead of a pair of cold fronts next week that will bring readings back to closer to normal as we approach Thanksgiving Day. Read More >

Background

The lightning images below are updated daily around 7:30–8:30 AM and contain 24-h accumulations of lightning ending at 6 am MDT (5 am MST) each day. There are two sets of images for (1) NLDN cloud-to-ground flashes only and (2) GOES-East Lightning Mapper (GLM) cloud flash points. Option #1 only represents cloud-to-ground lightning flashes, and is based on a surface detection network. Option #2 does not discriminate between cloud-to-ground versus in-cloud flashes (i.e., it represents the total lightning) and is based on satellite. In-cloud lightning flashes can comprise 60–90% of the total lightning (i.e., most lightning does not reach the ground). Satellite-based lightning detection also does not depict the exact location where the flash occurred because of an issue known as "parallax." Mouse over each day to view the 24-h cumulative lightning flash maps. Printable versions are at the bottom of each of the three map segments.