Crowdsourcing Lightning Strikes Actually Works Pretty Well

Ghastly afraid of lightning? Then try loading up this map of almost real-time strikes, and drive from place to place in a desperate attempt to stay out of electrical-discharge zones (though you'll probably wind up crashed into a storefront instead).

This enthralling cartography of the crackling skies was made by the people behind Blitzortung, an ambitious and geographically sprawling attempt to crowdsource foul weather. Years back, the Dusseldorf-based network began assisting the meteorologically curious in setting up relatively low-priced lightning detectors, which then feed data back to central servers. With more than 800 participants now hailing from the U.K. to Mexico to New Zealand and beyond, Blitzortung has in effect created a planetary picture of where things are getting zapped, with an expanding circle on its maps marking the spot of a seconds-old bolt.