Storm Sensei

Explained with pictures

How Storm Sensei Works

The storm-spotting robot that taps your shoulder before lightning gets close.

1

Lots of eyes watch the sky at once

No single eye sees everything, so Storm Sensei uses several and adds them together.

A camera in space A weather satellite spots every lightning flash from orbit — day and night.
Ears on the ground A network of antennas “hears” the radio crackle each bolt makes.
A box at some courses Where a course has its own weather station, it double-checks what’s overhead.
Rain radar Radar watches where rain is falling and how hard.
The weather service Official forecasts and storm warnings from the National Weather Service.
2

Is the storm coming toward you?

Storm Sensei takes a snapshot of the lightning, waits a few minutes, and takes another. Comparing the two shows which way the storm is moving — and when it would reach you.

snapshot · 10 min ago snapshot · now reaches you in ~20 min you
Two snapshots → direction + speed → arrival time. It only compares snapshots from the same eye — mixing two different sensors could invent movement that isn’t real.
3

Simple rules pick a color

Everything the eyes see goes through plain, unbendable rules about distance and time. No guessing, no mood — the same inputs always give the same color.

CLEARThe sky is quiet. Play on.
WATCHA storm is in the area, or we can’t confirm the wider area is clear. Keep an eye out.
WARNINGLightning is getting close. Wrap it up.
DANGERStrikes nearby. Go inside now.
4

An AI writes the words — the rules stay in charge

A helper AI turns the data into a friendly sentence. But it can only ever make the alert more careful, never less. If the AI is wrong or offline, the rules’ color stands on its own.

Safety rules distance · arrival time strikes · official warnings sets the minimum WARNING AI may raise it never lower it “Storm 6 miles out, moving your way. Head in soon.”
The rules set a floor the AI can stand on but never dig under.
5

It watches even while your phone sleeps

Every 5 minutes, Storm Sensei’s server re-checks the sky over everyone who’s out playing. If danger shows up, your phone gets a nudge — even with the app closed.

re-checks the sky every 5 min push alert z z z Lightning 2 mi away — head inside app closed, still protected
Danger alerts repeat a few times, so one buzzing pocket doesn’t get missed.
6

It took a test on real storms

Years of real, verified storms were replayed through the exact same safety code — using only the space camera, its weakest single eye.

7 in 10verified storms fully caught — and 96% at least reached yellow before the storm hit
~36.5 minaverage heads-up before the storm arrived
0false alarms at orange-or-worse across 759 verified storm-free days, on satellite data alone
The real app adds the other eyes on top, and the rules can only push alerts up — so the detection rate and lead time here are a cautious lower bound. The false-alarm number is the exception: adding eyes can only add alarms, so that one describes the space camera alone. Full methodology and results: see our Testing page.

That’s the whole trick

Many eyes watch the sky → snapshot math tells if the storm is coming for you → simple rules pick a color → an AI says it kindly → your phone gets a tap on the shoulder.

Storm Sensei — Weather Safety Intelligence

An everyday-words explainer of Storm Sensei’s lightning & rain safety models · stormsensei.com