Lightning strike report for an insurance claim: a practical guide

A lightning claim usually starts with something you did not see: a loud crack during the night, then a dead furnace board, a fried router, a TV that will not turn on. The insurer's first question is whether lightning was actually close to your property at that time. A lightning strike report answers that question with recorded data. This guide explains the two kinds of lightning data behind these reports, what each one can and cannot tell an adjuster, and how to pick the one that fits your claim.

What does a lightning strike report actually show?

A lightning report is a list of detected lightning events around a location over a time window, usually with the time of each event and its distance from the property. Verisk's Benchmark Lightning Date of Loss Report sample is a good example of the format adjusters see every day. Its published sample documents cloud-to-ground strikes within a 5 mile radius of the address, during the 36 hours before and after noon local time on the reported date of loss, and summarises them by distance: in the sample, 23 strikes within 2 miles and 68 within 5.

That same sample ends with a disclaimer that the report is wholly advisory in nature. Every lightning report works this way. It shows that lightning was recorded near the property at a certain time. It does not show that a particular strike damaged a particular appliance. The link between the two is made by the rest of the file: the time the power went out, the technician's report, the pattern of damage.

Two kinds of lightning data

Ground-based networks

Ground networks use sensors spread across a country to triangulate each lightning discharge. In the United States, Vaisala's National Lightning Detection Network reports a median location accuracy of 84 meters and a 95 % detection efficiency for cloud-to-ground strokes. That precision is why ground-network data is the standard for questions like whether a strike landed within a few hundred meters of a building.

Satellite lightning mappers

NOAA's GOES-19 and GOES-18 satellites each carry a Geostationary Lightning Mapper. It takes 500 images a second and detects the flashes of in-cloud, cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning, day and night, with 70 to 90 % flash detection according to NOAA. Its resolution is about 8 km at nadir and 14 km at the edge of the field of view, and it covers the Americas up to about 52° N, including oceans and places with little ground or radar coverage.

• Ground network: strengthPinpoints individual cloud-to-ground strokes to tens of meters. Best when the question is how close the nearest strike came.
• Ground network: limitCommercial data, sold through specific vendors and claims platforms, and strongest where the sensor network is dense.
• Satellite mapper: strengthPublic NOAA data, consistent across whole continents, and it captures the full storm, including in-cloud lightning that signals how electrically active the cell was over your area.
• Satellite mapper: limitKilometer-scale pixels. It cannot place a strike on a specific roof, and it does not separate cloud-to-ground from in-cloud flashes.

If the dispute is whether a strike hit within 200 meters of your house, ask for ground-network data. If the dispute is whether a thunderstorm was over your address at 11:40 pm, satellite data answers it on its own, and pairs with the hail and storm record.

What a Skybridge lightning report includes

A Skybridge report reads the GOES lightning mapper for your address and date and lists the flashes recorded in the area, with their time in your local clock, their energy and their distance from the point. Because the same report reads the satellite imager, it also shows how cold the storm tops were over you and when the cell peaked, and in the US it adds NOAA's radar hail estimate and the Storm Prediction Center reports within 50 km. Every report carries a unique code an adjuster can use to open the original version on our site.

Our US sample, for an address in Kankakee, Illinois, on March 10, 2026, recorded 2 lightning flashes inside a 1 km circle during the storm window, alongside a 77.5 % satellite hail probability and a preliminary SPC report of a 6.14 inch hailstone 0.2 km away. That combination matters in mixed claims, where hail damaged the roof and a surge took out electronics on the same evening.

How to document a lightning or surge claim

• Write down the timeThe time of the crack, the outage or the moment devices failed is the single most useful fact in a lightning claim. Smart thermostats, alarm panels, cameras and routers often log the exact minute power dropped.
• Keep the damaged equipmentDo not throw anything away. Adjusters and technicians want to see failed power supplies, burned ports and control boards.
• Get a written technician's reportOn letterhead, naming the failed component and the likely cause. Surge damage has recognisable patterns.
• Photograph the panel and outletsTripped breakers, a blown surge protector, scorch marks. These tell the story of the event.
• Check with neighboursSeveral homes losing equipment at the same minute points to a common event, either lightning or a utility fault.
• Add the lightning recordA report that shows lightning near your address at the time of the outage ties the timeline together.

Choosing the right report

• Electronics failed during a storm, insurer asks whether there was lightningA satellite lightning report with times and distances is usually enough, and it arrives in about a day.
• A fire or a direct strike on the structureAsk for ground-network data for the closest strikes, and add the satellite record for the storm's timing and intensity.
• Hail and lightning on the same nightOne Skybridge report can cover both hazards, so the roof and the electronics share one timeline.
• Outside the US ground networks' best coverageIn Argentina, Mexico, Canada and other places served by GOES, the satellite record may be the most consistent data available.

A US report starts at USD 249, is prepared and reviewed by our team, and is usually ready within a day. If your claim was denied over the date rather than the cause, read Hail claim denied? How to prove the date of loss. For a side-by-side look at radar, satellite and ground evidence, see Satellite, radar or ground network: which storm evidence holds up?

Why lightning claims stall

• No time attached to the lossWithout a time, no lightning record can be matched to the damage. Dig through device logs before you file.
• Equipment already discardedAdjusters cannot inspect what is gone. Keep everything until the claim is closed.
• The wrong report for the questionA satellite record cannot settle a 200 meter question, and a list of distant ground strikes cannot show a storm sat over your house for an hour. Match the data to the dispute.
• Mixing up datesLightning data is often stored in UTC. A storm late in the evening in the US can land on the next calendar day in the raw data, so make sure the report states its window in your local time.