How can we help?

ThunderTracker shows lightning events reported during the last five minutes within your selected map radius. The Activity screen shows when data was last updated. Lightning data is provided by Vaisala Xweather; city search is powered by Geoapify.

It means no strikes were returned for the selected area and five-minute window. It is not an all-clear. Lightning data can be delayed, incomplete, or unavailable, so continue to follow official weather information and local guidance.

Tap Search cities and choose a city or town, or move the map and tap Search this area. You can set the map’s search radius from 5 to 100 km.

The search radius controls what the map requests. Alert radius is a separate 5–50 km setting used for nearby alerts around your device’s current location. Searching or saving another city does not move alert monitoring to that city.

Saved places are bookmarks stored on this device. You can rename or remove them from Saved places. Saving a place does not enable alerts for it.

Open Settings → Lightning alerts, choose a radius, and turn on Nearby lightning alerts. Notifications and foreground location permission are required. Turn on Follow in the background and grant the additional location permission if you want your monitored location updated while the app is not open.

A reported strike inside your alert radius starts a 30-minute wait. Another nearby strike restarts it. You can also tap I heard thunder — restart wait. When the timer reaches zero, review current official and local conditions; zero is not an all-clear.

Simulation displays fictional lightning events so you can explore the app. It does not change monitoring of your real location or send real strike alerts. Turn it on or off in Settings → Simulation.

On supported iPhones, open Activity during an active wait and tap Show on Lock Screen. If Live Activities are disabled, enable them in iOS Settings. If live updates cannot continue, the Lock Screen status shows that monitoring was interrupted.

Open Settings in ThunderTracker and choose Restore purchases or Manage subscription. Restore with the same App Store account used for the original purchase.

1. Turn on Location Services for your device.
2. Open ThunderTracker → Settings → Device permissions and allow location access.
3. Reopen ThunderTracker and try again.

You can still search for a city without sharing your device location.

1. Open Settings → Lightning alerts and confirm Nearby lightning alerts is on.
2. Tap Open permission settings and allow notifications and location.
3. Return to Lightning alerts and tap Send test alert.
4. Check that the alert radius is what you expect.

If registration is still pending, wait briefly and try again.

Enable Follow in the background and grant background location access. Reopen ThunderTracker after changing permissions. If location updates stop for 15 minutes, monitoring pauses; force-quitting the app can also stop location updates.

Check your internet connection and the update time shown in Activity. Pull down on Recent strikes to retry. If you see “Refresh limit reached”, wait at least a minute before trying again. Provider availability and request limits can temporarily interrupt updates.

Enter at least three characters, check your connection, and tap Try again. Try a nearby town or a different spelling. You can also move the map and use Search this area.

Open Settings → Restore purchases while signed in to the App Store account used to buy ThunderTracker. If access is still processing, reopen the app and try again. Use Manage subscription to review the subscription in the store.