There are hourly and daily maps [0]. But there is an alternative live map at https://map.blitzortung.org/

[0]: https://wwlln.net/#maps

> When the time of group arrival is measured with 100 ns absolute accuracy by several widely spaced receivers, it is possible to locate lightning to within < 5 km

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL09...

Whenever it thundered I used to love to take out my shortwave radio, tune into some empty frequency and be able to hear each individual lightning strike in realtime (even more realtime than the speed of sound would allow!)

Raw logs, history access and APIs to weather data are usually $$$.

Like at the ECMWF: you can have a look at all beautiful charts for free. But if you want to have the data behind them they want to see big cash.

20th-century navigation used to operate like that, except using artificial radio sources—fixed beacons. I guess you could answer a lot of technical questions by looking at OMEGA, which, similar to lightning-generated RF, used the VLF range (3–30 kHz), and had global range bouncing off the ionosphere,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_navigation ("Hyperbolic navigation")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_(navigation_system) ("Omega (navigation system)")

> "OMEGA was the first global-range radio navigation system, operated by the United States in cooperation with six partner nations. It was a hyperbolic navigation system, enabling ships and aircraft to determine their position by receiving very low frequency (VLF) radio signals in the range 10 to 14 kHz, transmitted by a global network of eight fixed terrestrial radio beacons, using a navigation receiver unit. It became operational around 1971 and was shut down in 1997 in favour of the Global Positioning System."