PHOENIX — A new feature to help track the monsoon is now available to the public.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix launched a lightning tracker on its website this week.
The tracker includes cloud-to-ground lightning strike data for the entire state along with each county and info for the Phoenix and Tucson metros.
The tool uses lightning strike data from the National Lightning Detection Network operated by VAISALA. The network has sensors nationwide that pick up electromagnetic waves specifically produced by lightning.
It's an important tool in measuring how busy a monsoon season truly is according to National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Tom Frieders.
“The majority of our rainfall that we receive around here is associated with thunderstorms. That’s going to be your heaviest precipitation. By just tracking the lightning with those thunderstorms, it’s just kind of a good way to see how the monsoon is trending," Frieders said.
Monsoon 2022 is trending slightly above average with more than 300,000 lightning strikes in Arizona so far. Numbers are updated every day after 5:00 P.M.
To find the full monsoon lightning data, click here.
