[REQUEST API/DATA USAGE] - Non-Commercial Personal Hobby Project - Printable Version +- Blitzortung.org Forum (https://forum.blitzortung.org/mybb) +-- Forum: Public Forums (https://forum.blitzortung.org/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=29) +--- Forum: Website, Maps and Applications (https://forum.blitzortung.org/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=24) +--- Thread: [REQUEST API/DATA USAGE] - Non-Commercial Personal Hobby Project (/showthread.php?tid=4312)

[REQUEST API/DATA USAGE] - Non-Commercial Personal Hobby Project - onurd - 2026-09-30 Hello, I am working on a very small personal hobby project related to local thunderstorm forecasts and live lightning activity, and I would like to ask whether my intended use of Blitzortung data would be acceptable. This is not a commercial product and I do not plan to monetize it. It will most likely remain a personal learning project used by myself and perhaps a few friends. I am not a professional software developer. I have been building the project mainly with the help of AI coding tools while learning about lightning detection, weather forecasting and geospatial processing. The project currently shows a simple local thunderstorm forecast. I would like to add a separate live-observation layer using Blitzortung data. The intended use would be limited to simple informational summaries such as: nearest recently detected lightning strike, number of recent detections within 10 / 25 / 50 km, time since the most recent nearby detection At a later stage, I may also experiment with non-authoritative trend wording such as “activity appears to be approaching” or “moving away,” based on recent strike patterns. I understand that this would only be an approximation and would not be presented as a storm track, safety guarantee, or official warning. I also understand that Blitzortung data must not be used as an official storm-warning or safety-critical system. The project would clearly state that it is informational only and that users should follow official meteorological and emergency guidance. Technically, I would not want every browser to connect directly to Blitzortung. If permitted, my preferred setup would be a single server-side connection, very short-term in-memory retention of recent detections (for example up to 60 minutes), and only derived proximity information shown to the user. Before proceeding, I would like to ask: Would this type of small, non-commercial personal hobby use be acceptable? Which current live-data access method would you recommend for such a project? Is temporary in-memory retention of recent strikes acceptable for distance/count calculations? May derived information such as nearest-strike distance and recent strike counts be shown? Would optional proximity notifications such as “lightning activity detected nearby” fall under the prohibited storm-warning category, or could they be acceptable if clearly informational and non-authoritative? Are there any specific attribution, rate-limit, retention, geographic-scope, or redistribution requirements I should follow? I am completely happy to keep the project private or very limited if public use is not appropriate. My main goal is simply to learn and experiment while respecting the Blitzortung project and its rules. Thank you very much for your time and for maintaining such an interesting community project.