Live field tracking
Follow active positions during severe weather operations, spotting, coverage, and storm chasing.
Spotter tracking reimagined
Lightning Field Systems is the creator of Bolt, a practical GPS tracking and weather awareness tool built for storm observers: SKYWARN spotters, storm chasers, meteorologists, TV weather teams, and weather news organizations.
Bolt
Know where you are, what is around you, and what happened afterward.
Bolt starts with fast live GPS tracking for severe weather field work. It is built for the person in the field who needs their position, trail, storm context, and notes in one place while conditions are still changing.
That same foundation also supports shared awareness for spotter networks, meteorologists, coverage teams, and weather organizations that need to see where field reports are coming from.
Chase history
Save the path, timing, notes, and surrounding weather context from a chase so the day can be reviewed later.
Weather context
Keep radar layers, observations, and notes together so the storm day stays readable in the field and afterward.
Meteorological software integration
Between Bolt's spotter placefile and Bolt PlaceHub, bring rapid position updates, power outage data, and more into GR2Analyst or any software that supports placefiles.
Bolt PlaceHub
More context in the tools you already use.
Bolt PlaceHub provides a growing library of custom placefile overlays for meteorological software. It is built for storm observers who keep GR2Analyst or similar tools open during severe weather and want useful outside data close to their radar workflow.
Custom overlays for storm work.
PlaceHub keeps practical map layers close at hand for chasers, spotters, meteorologists, and forecasters working active weather.
Storm observer positions
See the field while the weather is still moving.
Bolt gives storm observers a live view of active field positions: your own location, your recent path, and shared positions from other spotters and chasers when available.
For the person in the vehicle, that means better awareness in the moment. For meteorologists and weather organizations, it means a clearer picture of where ground truth may be coming from.
Live positions in the field
Bolt's live map can display weather, spotters, power outages, warnings and alerts, and any other data you can throw at it.
Updated in seconds
You can't afford to wait minutes for a GPS fix.
During severe weather, a spotter position that is minutes behind can already be old news. Bolt is built around fast GPS updates, aiming to keep field tracking measured in seconds instead of minutes so the map better reflects what is happening now.
Built by
Austin Burk
Austin builds Bolt from Lansing, Michigan, shaped by software engineering, Great Lakes weather, amateur radio, mapping, and practical storm chasing experience.