Lightning

These endpoints serve lightning detected by the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Each flash has a type (cloud-to-cloud or cloud-to-ground), a time, and coordinates. The server checks the source every 30 seconds and adds a snapshot when the source updates. Snapshots are kept for 3 days. Use them to draw lightning on a map or to warn for thunderstorms. The shared format is in the Weather API.

Data license

• Attribution · Commercial use OK

  AttributionData: Central Weather Administration (CWA), ExpTech Studio (exptech.dev)

Upstream terms

• Central Weather Administration (CWA): CWA's own data terms (such as the Open Government Data License) also apply; CWA's official releases take precedence.

Where to show it, examples and commercial-use requests: Data licensing and attribution.

Authentication

No API Token is required.

Latest lightning

The latest lightning snapshot. Lightning has no stations. In the columnar format, the same index in each array is one flash.

GEThttps://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning

Commercial OK

ServerTNN-1

Request

cURL

curl "https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning"

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning",
    timeout=10,
)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response

200304

Success

{
  "time": 1794636300,
  "type": [
    0,
    0,
    1
  ],
  "t": [
    1794635880,
    1794635940,
    1794636120
  ],
  "lat": [
    24.802,
    24.804,
    24.818
  ],
  "lon": [
    121.008,
    121.023,
    120.978
  ]
}

Show all（23 lines）

Not modified (If-None-Match matched). No bodyNo response body

Try it

API token (optional)

Remember in this browserSend

The token is sent from your browser directly to the API.

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
time	number	End of the interval this batch covers, in Unix seconds
type	number[]	Flash type: 0 cloud-to-cloud, 1 cloud-to-ground
t	number[]	Time of each flash, in Unix seconds
lat	number[]	Latitude, 4 decimal places
lon	number[]	Longitude, 4 decimal places

When there were no flashes in the interval, each array is empty. When the server has no data yet, the response is {}.

Snapshot times

Lightning snapshot times you can query now, as delta-encoded Unix seconds, oldest first. See Delta-encoded time lists for how to decode them.

GEThttps://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/list

Commercial OK

ServerTNN-1

Request

cURL

curl "https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/list"

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/list");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/list",
    timeout=10,
)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response

200304

Success

[
  1794377100,
  300,
  300,
  600
]

Not modified (If-None-Match matched). No bodyNo response body

Try it

API token (optional)

Remember in this browserSend

The token is sent from your browser directly to the API.

Response fields

Field	Type	Description
[0]	number	Time of the oldest snapshot, in Unix seconds
[i]（i ≥ 1）	number	Gap from the previous time, in seconds. A new snapshot is added only when the source updates, so the gap is not fixed

When there are no snapshots, the response is [].

Lightning at a time

The lightning snapshot at a chosen time. The structure matches Latest lightning. It is served only on static.core. api.core returns 404 for this path.

GEThttps://static.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/{time}

Commercial OK

ServerTNN-1

Path parameters

• timeintegerRequired

  Path parameter. Snapshot time, a 10-digit Unix timestamp in seconds. It must be a value that appeared in /list

Request

cURL

curl "https://static.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/<time>"

JavaScript

const res = await fetch("https://static.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/<time>");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://static.core-tnn1.exptech.dev/api/v5/meteor/lightning/<time>",
    timeout=10,
)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

Response

200304404

Success. Same structure as the latest lightning

{
  "time": 1794636000,
  "type": [
    1
  ],
  "t": [
    1794635710
  ],
  "lat": [
    24.7921
  ],
  "lon": [
    121.0113
  ]
}

Not modified (If-None-Match matched). No bodyNo response body

time is not an integer, or there is no snapshot at that time (including past the retention window). No bodyNo response body

Try it

Path parameters

timeRequired

API token (optional)

Remember in this browserSend

The token is sent from your browser directly to the API.

Response fields

Same response fields as Latest lightning.

Notes

• Every time is Unix seconds. time is the end of the snapshot interval. The time of an individual flash is t.
• Snapshots are kept for 3 days. Lightning has no trend endpoint and no station-catalog endpoint.
• Source: lightning data in CWA open data.
• Which server to call is in the Weather API. Timestamp snapshots go to static.core. Everything else goes to api.core. Use the TNN-1 URLs directly.