Lightning Detection

Lightning Hot Spots, safety tips and general information - a series of maps showing where lightning occurs most frequently in Canada, lightning activity in major cities, safety tips and more information.

Lightning Activity

This image represents the estimated frequency of Lightning Flashes to ground derived from an analysis of lightning detected over Canada and the United States during the hour ending at the time noted above the image. Times are expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This image is updated each hour at approximately 25 minutes past the hour.

The estimated frequency of Lightning is depicted as flashes per 1000 square km* per minute as follows:

•     Continuous (Red) = more than 9.9 per minute
•     Frequent (Orange) = 2.5-9.9 per minute
•     Scattered (Yellow) = 0.6-2.4 per minute
•     Occasional (Green) = 0.1-0.5 per minute
•     Isolated (Blue) = less than 0.1 per minute

Note*: 1000 square km represents a circle having a radius of 17.8 km