New NOAA technology shows real-time lightning from space

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- We're seeing lightning like never before!

A new instrument aboard NOAA's recently launched GOES-R satellite now allows us to continuously monitor lightning strikes over the entire Western Hemisphere.

Current lightning detection networks in widespread use only track cloud-to-ground lightning strikes and can only detect lightning a few hundred miles offshore.

The new "Geostationary Lightning Mapper" can detect both cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud lightning strikes as well as all lightning over the oceans.

Watch as Meteorologist Travis Herzog shows us newly released real-time video of the lightning strikes detected in the tornadic storms that tore through the Houston area on Valentine's Day.