Built around OSHA & NOAA 30-minute lightning guidance

Every location watched.
Even the ones you're not on.

A text to the supervisor and crew leads when lightning is detected within 20 miles of a location, another at 15, and the stop operations alert at 10 — each with the distance and direction of the closest strike, plus any National Weather Service thunderstorm forecast or watch in effect for that address. Crews go back after 30 strike-free minutes, on a rule.

Set up in under 2 minutes per location · No app for anyone to install · Cancel anytime

Real-time strike data from Xweather's national lightning detection network
Automatic 30-minute all-clear timer, per OSHA publication 3863
SMS delivery through Twilio, the same infrastructure used for bank alerts
Payments handled by Stripe — card details never touch our servers
The ladder

Four messages, in the order a storm arrives

Each stage sends once per storm. No repeats, no chatter. Every text your supervisors get means something changed. The three warning texts also carry the National Weather Service forecast for that location, looked up fresh each time, so you can make the best call on when to stand the job down.

20 mi
Advisory

Lightning is in the area, with distance and direction. Nothing stops. The supervisor on location knows it's out there.

15 mi
Watch

It's closing. Get hands down from height, and work out how this job gets to a stopping point before the next text.

10 mi
Stop operations

All outdoor operations stop — the distance in OSHA/NOAA guidance. By now your crews should already be clear.

30 min
All clear

Thirty strike-free minutes, then crews go back. Every new strike restarts the clock — a rule, not a judgment call.

Not every storm announces itself. A cell that forms directly overhead can put lightning inside 10 miles with nothing detected further out — those sites get the stop operations alert first and nothing before it. The early stages are what we can see coming.

How it works

From location to active monitoring in two minutes

No weather station on location, no app for your hands to download. If a crew lead can receive a text, he's covered.

1

Register each location

Enter the location's address and the numbers that get alerts — the supervisor on location, the crew leads, the company man, and whoever is dispatching from the yard. When the job moves, stop monitoring that location and add the next one; the slot frees up. We watch the airspace around every location around the clock, out to 20 miles.

2

Get warned before it's on top of you

Lightning inside 20 miles sends an advisory; inside 15, a watch. Each names the distance and direction of the closest strike, alongside what the National Weather Service has published for that address — the hours thunderstorms are forecast, any watch or warning in effect, and the location's end of day if you've set operating hours. One text per stage, per storm. Nobody's phone buzzes for nothing.

3

Stop at 10, all-clear at 30

A strike inside 10 miles sends the stop operations alert. Then, after 30 consecutive strike-free minutes — the OSHA/NOAA-recommended wait for outdoor workers — every contact gets the all-clear, so crews go back on the same authority that sent them in, not on whoever got restless first.

What you get

Everything a safety plan needs, nothing it doesn't

Built for service company owners, HSE managers and company men who need one defensible lightning procedure across every location — not another dashboard to babysit.

📡

Staged 20 / 15 / 10-mile alerts

Three tiers instead of one, around each location's coordinates — not a county-wide alert for the whole basin. The early tiers are what a hand on location can't do himself: he can hear thunder at ten miles, not see a cell at twenty.

🌧️

The forecast in the same text

Each warning carries what the National Weather Service has published for that exact address — the hours thunderstorms are forecast, any watch or warning in effect, and when the location is due to shut down for the day. The near view and the longer one in a single message, so nobody opens a weather app to decide whether to stop outdoor operations. We relay the Weather Service; we don't forecast anything ourselves.

🛢️

Written for work that can't stop instantly

A hand up the mast, a wireline tool string in the hole, a crew at the far end of a right-of-way — none of that is wrapped up the second a text lands, and the nearest hard shelter is usually a crew truck. That's why the ladder starts at 20 miles instead of 10: the advisory and the watch buy back the minutes those jobs actually take.

⏱️

30-minute all-clear timer

Every new strike resets the clock. The all-clear only goes out after a full 30 strike-free minutes, matching OSHA 3863 and NOAA guidance — so crews go back on a rule, not on someone's read of the sky.

🗺️

Live status page per location

Each location gets a shareable status page with a live strike map, radar overlay, countdown, and the next twelve hours from the National Weather Service. Send it to the company man or pin it in the crew group chat — no login, nothing to explain.

📍

Several locations, one procedure

Every location runs on the same distances and the same 30-minute clock, whoever is supervising it that day. Your dashboard shows which locations are in alert and which are clear, so the office knows without calling around.

👥

Everyone on location, same text, same second

Add every number that needs to know when outdoor operations stop — the supervisor, the crew leads, the company man, the yard. Every contact gets every stage at the same time. No relay by radio, nobody finding out after the fact.

📄

A record of every stop and restart

Every strike, alert, and all-clear is logged with a timestamp. Export a clean PDF report for any date range — when each stop alert went out, when the all-clear followed, and how many contacts were texted. Ready for the operator, your client, or your contractor safety file.

Pricing

Simple per-company pricing

Every plan includes full monitoring, staged SMS alerts with the National Weather Service forecast, all-clear timers, and live status pages. No contracts, no sales calls — cancel anytime.

Starter
One active site, up to three alert contacts.
$29
per month
  • 1 monitored site
  • 3 alert contacts
  • Staged 20/15/10-mile alerts & 30-min all-clear
  • National Weather Service forecast in every warning
  • Live status page with strike map
Choose Starter
Business
For GCs and firms with a full project portfolio.
$199
per month
  • Up to 25 monitored sites
  • 10 alert contacts per site
  • Staged 20/15/10-mile alerts & 30-min all-clear
  • National Weather Service forecast in every warning
  • Live status page per site
Choose Business

Prices are per company, not per user. Annual billing works out to roughly two months free.
Running more than 25 sites? Contact us for Enterprise pricing — volume rates, priority support.

FAQ

Common questions

Something else on your mind? Email us — a real person answers.

What about locations with bad cell coverage?
This is a real limit. Alerts are text messages, and a text needs a signal to reach a phone. If a location has no coverage, the crew there won't get the alert while they're out of range — it may arrive once a phone picks up signal again, which can be too late to be useful. The live status page needs a data connection. For a location like that, put numbers that do have signal on the contact list — the yard, a supervisor in town — and relay by whatever the crew already uses to reach location.
One lease, several pads — one site or several?
It depends how far apart they are. Every distance in a text is measured from the address you registered for that site. Pads within a mile or so of it are covered, but each one is that much nearer to or farther from a strike than the text says. If pads are spread several miles apart, register them as separate sites so each one gets its own distances.
The text says "outdoor operations." Why not the rig floor?
Because not every job can stop on a text message. A drilling operation that is circulating or mid-trip gets to a stopping point by its own procedure, not by a line from us. So the texts say what every location has in common: "All outdoor operations must stop immediately." How each job gets there is your procedure and your call.
Why 10 miles and 30 minutes?
Those are the thresholds recommended in OSHA/NOAA lightning safety guidance for outdoor workers (OSHA publication 3863): suspend work when lightning is within 10 miles, and wait 30 minutes after the last strike before resuming. Rig and service crews on location are outdoor workers, and that guidance is written for them. Lightning Ward automates exactly that procedure — including resetting the 30-minute clock every time a new strike is detected. We start texting at 20 miles because the walk from the job to a truck takes real time, and by 10 miles the guidance says work should already have stopped.
Does every storm give advance warning?
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. Storms that move in from a distance cross the 20- and 15-mile rings first, so you get the advisory and the watch before the stop operations alert. But a cell that builds directly over a site can put lightning inside 10 miles with nothing detected further out — in that case the stop operations alert is the first message you receive. Detection also reaches about 25 miles out, so a fast-moving storm may first appear already inside the 20-mile ring. We report what's detected, and we relay what the National Weather Service has published for your address — we don't make forecasts of our own.
Is this a different service from what other customers get?
No. Every Lightning Ward customer gets the same detection, the same 20-, 15- and 10-mile rings, the same 30-minute all-clear, the same contact limits and the same prices. Choosing "Oil & gas lease or drill site" at signup labels the location for your records; the texts say "outdoor operations," for the reason above.

The next storm is already forming.

Put every location on the same lightning rule today — it takes about two minutes per location.

Start monitoring your locations →