IoT Lightning Strike Detector with Storm Alert Dashboard

Lightning remains one of the biggest weather killers, and the people most at risk — farmers, construction crews, school playgrounds, outdoor event crowds — rarely get a timely local warning. Professional lightning-location networks exist, but their data is commercial and far beyond a student or community budget. This project closes that gap with a buildable IoT alternative: a dedicated lightning sensor IC listens for the electromagnetic pulse of each discharge, rejects man-made disturbers, and reports the strike's estimated distance; an ESP32 timestamps each event and publishes it over Wi-Fi; and a web dashboard turns the stream into a live strike map with range rings, a waveform view of the latest pulse, and an alert engine that messages you when strikes close in. A solar panel and battery keep the node running in the field, and a siren-relay output can sound a local hooter.

1. The sensor continuously listens for lightning EM pulses; on a validated strike it interrupts the ESP32 with distance and energy estimates.
2. The ESP32 timestamps the event and publishes it over Wi-Fi (MQTT/HTTP), with store-and-forward across outages.
3. The backend appends the event to the strike log and pushes it to the dashboard over a live channel.
4. The dashboard plots the strike on the range-ring map, updates the nearest-strike and storm-status cards, and refreshes the waveform view.
5. The alert engine compares each strike's distance against the configured radius and sends SMS/push alerts for in-radius strikes.
6. The siren relay output can drive a local hooter; everything keeps running on solar + battery between charges.

Tech stack:

• ESP32 (node controller + Wi-Fi)
• AS3935-class lightning sensor with antenna
• MQTT · Wi-Fi telemetry
• Solar panel + Li-ion + charge controller
• Node.js backend with event store
• HTML · CSS · JS dashboard
• SMS · push alert gateway
• Weatherproof enclosure + pole mount

• [Lightning EM-pulse sensing] Dedicated sensor IC (AS3935-class) with tuned antenna, noise-floor calibration and disturber rejection.
• [Strike distance estimation] Per-event distance estimate from the sensor, plotted on the dashboard's range-ring map.
• [Live strike map] Range rings every 10 km around the node, strikes colour-coded by distance band, click a strike for details.
• [Storm alert engine] Configurable alert radius (5–40 km); SMS/push alerts fire when strikes land inside it.
• [Pulse waveform view] The latest strike's EM waveform rendered on the dashboard with rise-time and peak-current estimates.
• [Solar field power] Panel plus Li-ion battery and charge controller in a weatherproof pole-mounted enclosure.
• [Siren relay output] Optional local hooter drive for sites where a phone alert isn't enough.

• Assembled lightning sensor node (ESP32, sensor, antenna, solar, battery, enclosure)
• Node firmware with sensor tuning and telemetry
• Web dashboard (strike map, log, waveform, alert configuration)
• Backend service with event store and alert rules engine
• Sensor calibration and installation guide
• Project report PDF (EM sensing theory, system design, methodology)
• PPT presentation and viva Q&A

• Strike distances are the sensor IC's own estimates — approximate by nature, not surveyed positions; single-node bearing is not resolved.
• Detection range is a design target and varies with terrain, antenna placement and storm intensity.
• SMS/push alerts need a gateway account and mobile coverage at the user's end.
• The system is an educational early-warning aid, not a substitute for official meteorological warnings.
• Wi-Fi coverage is required at the node site; a LoRa variant is future scope.