Built around OSHA & NOAA 30-minute lightning guidance

Most lightning alerts tell you it's here.
Ours tell you it's coming.

A text when lightning is detected within 20 miles of your jobsite, 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. The Superintendent can make better decisions and get crews down on your schedule, not the storm's.

Plans from $29/month per company · Set up in under 2 minutes · 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 Superintendent gets means something changed. The three warning texts also carry the National Weather Service forecast for your address, looked up fresh each time, so you can make the best decision on when to stand down.

20 mi
Advisory

Lightning is in the area, with distance and direction. Nothing stops. Your Superintendent knows it's out there.

15 mi
Watch

It's closing. Get crews down off steel and roofs, decide what to do about the pour.

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 — the step people skip.

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 address to active monitoring in two minutes

No weather station on the trailer, no app for your crews to download. If a foreman can receive a text, he's covered.

1

Register the jobsite address

Enter the site address and the numbers that get alerts — super, foremen, safety, and the sub leads who need to hear it when you do. We geocode the site and watch the airspace around it around the clock, out to 20 miles, not just the 10-mile radius.

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 site's closing time 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 — 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

Purpose-built for superintendents and safety managers who need a defensible lightning procedure — not another dashboard to babysit.

📡

Staged 20 / 15 / 10-mile alerts

Three tiers instead of one, around your exact site coordinates — not a county-wide alert for the whole metro. The early tiers are what a super on the deck 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 your site is due to close. 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 pour in progress, a load on the hook, a crew tied off on steel, a roof half dried-in — none of those stop the second a text lands. That's why the ladder starts at 20 miles instead of 10: the advisory and the watch buy back the minutes those operations 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.

🗺️

Live status page per site

Each site gets a shareable status page with a live strike map, radar overlay, countdown, and the next twelve hours from the National Weather Service. Pin it in the project group chat — no login, nothing to explain.

👥

Everyone on the job, same text, same second

Add every number that needs to know when outdoor operations stop — your crews and the sub foremen working alongside them. Every contact gets every stage at the same time. No phone tree, nobody waiting to be told, no version of the call that got garbled on the way down.

📱

Works on any phone

Plain SMS. No app to install, no accounts for the people receiving alerts, nothing to keep updated. It works on a flip phone in a dead zone of app-store coverage.

📄

Compliance report export

Every strike, alert, and all-clear is logged with a timestamp. Export a clean PDF report for any date range — ready for an OSHA inspector, an insurer, or a project owner asking how your lightning procedure is actually enforced. Still need the written procedure itself? Start from our free jobsite lightning safety plan template.

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.

How quickly do alerts arrive after a strike?
We poll Xweather's professional lightning detection network continuously and text as soon as a strike is confirmed inside one of your rings — typically within a few minutes of the strike itself. Most storms cross the 20- and 15-mile rings before reaching 10, so the advisory and watch usually arrive ahead of the stop operations alert.
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. 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 by the time lightning is at 10, that guidance says work should already have stopped — and a crew doesn't get clear of a deck in the time it takes to read a text.
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.
Will you tell me how long until the storm reaches my site?
No. Storms change speed and direction, and one that stalls or grows in place can look like it's closing fast when it isn't. A wrong countdown is worse than none. Tell a superintendent "twenty minutes," give him eight, and he never trusts the tool again. So we stick to what can actually be observed and reported: how far away the closest strike is and which direction it came from, and, for the longer view, the National Weather Service forecast for your address — the hours thunderstorms are expected and any watch in effect. The near picture and the long one, from the people whose job each of those is. Your judgment and the radar do the rest.
Where does the forecast in the text come from?
The National Weather Service, for the coordinates of your site — not a county-wide product. We read their hourly forecast and any active watch or warning and restate it in the message without changing it or adding to it. It's looked up fresh for each text, so the advisory you get at 2 PM and the stop operations alert at 4 PM can carry different information, and each one stands on its own. If the Weather Service has nothing thunderstorm-related for the hours ahead, that sentence is simply absent — we don't pad it. And if their systems are slow or down, the warning still goes out on time without it: a safety message is never held up for a forecast.
Does anyone need to install anything?
No. Alerts are plain text messages, and the live status page is a normal web link that opens in any browser. Only the account owner ever signs in — everyone else just receives texts.
What happens if a storm is already overhead when I sign up?
The moment your site activates, we check the last hour of strike history around it. If lightning has already been detected inside your radius, we immediately put the site in alert status and start the 30-minute countdown — you're never starting blind.
Can I change which sites are monitored?
Yes. Sites aren't locked in — from your dashboard you can stop monitoring a site and add another one anytime, within your plan's site count.
Can I document our lightning procedure for OSHA or insurers?
Yes. Every detected strike, alert, and all-clear is logged with a timestamp. From your dashboard you can export a compliance report for any date range — it shows when alerts went out, how many contacts were notified, and when operations were cleared to resume, along with the detection methodology. Print it or save it as a PDF. The report documents what happened; if you also need the written procedure it enforces, our free jobsite lightning safety plan template is fill-in-the-blank and needs no account.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. There are no contracts or cancellation fees. Manage or cancel your subscription anytime from the billing portal in your dashboard, and monitoring runs through the end of your paid period.

The next storm is already forming.

Put a defensible lightning procedure on your jobsite today — it takes about two minutes.

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