Flash observations
The Finnish Meteorological Institute's lightning locator detects and locates lightning throughout Finland. The observations include ground lightning with partial strikes and some cloud lightning. However, the observing efficiency of cloud flashes is significantly lower than that of earth balms. The most important parameters indicated by the locator are time and location information. The system also reports estimates of peak current and positioning inaccuracies, among other things. In the case of earth balms, the positioning accuracy (ground contact point) is typically less than 1 km, but the positioning accuracy varies from location to location. In total, the data contains the entire allowed continuum up to a maximum value of 25 km. For cloud galaxies, error estimates are typically higher, but on the other hand, their location cannot be precisely determined by a single point (there is no earth contact).
Trust score
How is this computed?Composite of 5 axes from our methodology (proof-based officialness, live verification, metadata completeness, license clarity, agent readiness).
- Officialnessweight 25%50/100
Not public-sector → neutral score; not subject to the proof checker.
- Availabilityweight 25%100/100
Latest verification succeeded.
- Metadata completenessweight 20%40/100
4 of 10 recommended metadata fields populated.
- License clarityweight 15%50/100
License info not yet tracked for APIs (datasets only).
- Agent readinessweight 15%10/100
Topic tags assigned
Data access
A queryable map-feature service. Its attribute schema couldn't be read automatically — query the service endpoint directly to inspect its fields.
Verification Status
Using the API
Configuration
- Base URL
- https://opendata.fmi.fi/wfs?request=GetFeature&storedquery_id=fmi%3A%3Aobservations%3A%3Alightning%3A%3Amultipointcoverage
Query examples
curl -s 'https://opendata.fmi.fi/wfs?request=GetFeature&storedquery_id=fmi%3A%3Aobservations%3A%3Alightning%3A%3Amultipointcoverage' -H 'Accept: application/json'Base API endpoint — see the documentation for available routes.