The first proper storm of the season rolled through on 6 October. We watched it come in for more than six hours on our lightning dashboard, from 129 km out at three in the morning to a strike 3.1 km from the station just after half past ten. That is the whole point of a thunderstorm tracker. You see the thing coming long before you hear it.
This post is the “how do I actually read it” guide. We walk through what each part of the dashboard means, what our own station logged this year, and how we use it to decide when to bring the washing in, move the cattle or call off the barbecue.
What the lightning dashboard shows
The dashboard plots strikes from the Blitzortung network, a community network of volunteer lightning receivers, on a map centred on Dayboro. We log everything inside 400 km and the map shows the action within 100 km, with rings at 25, 50 and 100 km.
- Strike colour is age. White is the freshest strike, red is older. If the white dots sit on the near side of a red cluster, the storm is coming toward you. White on the far side means it is moving away.
- Strikes in the last hour and last 24 hours. A quick count. A jump in the last hour tells you a cell is building.
- Closest strike. The single most useful number on the page. Watch it over 15 to 30 minutes, not once.
- Primary direction. The compass direction most of the recent strikes sit in, measured from Dayboro.
- Storm cell tracking. Strikes get grouped into cells when three or more fall within 30 km of each other. Each cell gets a distance and, when the numbers allow it, a heading.
The distance bands in the legend are the ones we use ourselves:
| Band | Distance from Dayboro | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Danger | under 10 km | Indoors, now |
| Warning | 10–25 km | Finish up outside and head in |
| Caution | 25–50 km | Get the washing, tie things down |
| Watch | 50–100 km | Check again in 15 minutes |
| Distant to very far | 100–400 km | Interesting, not urgent |
A worked example: the storm of 6 October
Here is the closest strike per hour our database logged that day, from the same data the dashboard draws on. Times are Brisbane time.
| Hour | Strikes within 150 km | Closest strike |
|---|---|---|
| 03:00 | 2 | 128.6 km |
| 04:00 | 91 | 108.2 km |
| 05:00 | 71 | 80.7 km |
| 06:00 | 64 | 80.8 km |
| 07:00 | 18 | 75.8 km |
| 08:00 | 23 | 42.9 km |
| 09:00 | 30 | 48.8 km |
| 10:00 | 16 | 3.1 km |
| 11:00 | 37 | 14.2 km |
| 12:00 | 17 | 11.1 km |
| 13:00 | 9 | 38.7 km |
Read it from the top and the story tells itself. The closest strike drops from over 100 km to about 80 km by dawn, stalls a bit, then halves again by 08:00. The first strike inside 25 km landed at 10:37 and the last one inside 25 km at 12:07. By 13:00 it had moved off to almost 40 km, and a second round came back to about 32 km late that night. The station caught 4.1 mm of rain out of it, which is not much, but the lightning was the real hazard here, not the rain.
Two things worth noticing. First, it was a morning storm. Most people think storms are an afternoon thing, and mostly they are, but not always. Second, nobody was waiting on a warning to know this one was coming. The closest strike trend gave us the best part of seven hours.
What our station logged this year
We started recording individual strikes on 15 January 2026. To 11 October that is 38,896 strikes inside 400 km. The useful part is what happened close to home.
| Month (2026) | Strikes within 100 km | Within 25 km | Closest |
|---|---|---|---|
| January (from the 15th) | 1,214 | 46 | 2.6 km |
| February | 453 | 76 | 2.9 km |
| March | 113 | 12 | 3.1 km |
| April | 108 | 1 | 18.3 km |
| May | 487 | 13 | 11.1 km |
| June | 0 | 0 | 121.5 km |
| July | 8 | 0 | 58.6 km |
| August | 0 | 0 | 107.5 km |
| September | 0 | 0 | 160.8 km |
| October (to the 11th) | 344 | 22 | 3.1 km |
Winter was dead quiet. From June to September not a single strike came within 50 km. Then October switched it back on in one go, and all 22 of the October strikes inside 25 km came from that one storm on the 6th. Across the whole year so far there were 12 days with a strike inside 25 km of Dayboro.
Time of day matters as well. Of the 2,727 strikes within 100 km, 1,045 (38%) came between 16:00 and 18:59. So if you are planning something outdoors in the weekend in summer, late afternoon is the window to keep an eye on. We wrote more about why our storms don’t stick to the textbook calendar in why this storm season isn’t just November to March.
How far away is the lightning, without the map?
Count the seconds between the flash and the thunder. Sound covers about a kilometre every three seconds, so 9 seconds is roughly 3 km and 30 seconds is roughly 10 km. That is a calculation from the speed of sound, not a measurement, and wind and hills will shift it a bit, but it is good enough to act on.
The Australian lightning protection standard puts it as the 30/30 rule. If the gap between flash and thunder is 30 seconds or less, the storm is close enough to be dangerous and you should get to shelter. Then wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder before you go back out. Lightning can strike well away from the main storm, so blue sky overhead does not mean you are clear.
Well, the dashboard just makes that counting easier. If the closest strike says 8 km, you don’t need to count anything.
How we use it, in practice
- Check the trend, not the snapshot. Look at the closest strike, wait 15 minutes, look again. Shrinking is your signal.
- Treat the cell heading as a guide. Strike clusters jump around as cells grow and collapse, so a single heading or arrival estimate can swing a lot between updates. The closest strike trend is more honest.
- Pair it with radar. Lightning shows you where the electrical action is, our radar page shows you where the rain is. A cell with heavy rain and no lightning is a different problem than one with lots of strikes.
- Check the official warnings. Our dashboard is a tracker, not a warning service. For severe thunderstorm warnings we pull the official ones onto current conditions and warnings.
Members can also get a push alert when lightning is detected within 50 km. The options are on our membership page. If you are on a property with stock, or you jsut hate being caught out, it is eventually worth a minute to look.
One honest limit. Our strike log only starts in mid January 2026, so we cannot show you a full storm season yet. Ask us again next winter. Until then we keep logging every strike, and the dashboard keeps showing them as they land.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a live thunderstorm tracker for Dayboro?
Yes. The Dayboro lightning dashboard shows strikes as they are detected within 400 km of Dayboro, with the closest strike, strike counts for the last hour and 24 hours, and storm cell tracking.
How do I tell if a storm is coming toward me?
Watch the closest strike distance over 15 to 30 minutes. If it keeps shrinking, and the newest white strikes sit on your side of the older red ones, the storm is heading your way.
How far away is lightning if I count 10 seconds?
About 3 km. Sound travels roughly a kilometre every three seconds. At 30 seconds or less, get indoors and stay there until 30 minutes after the last thunder.
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