What is the Stormtracker and how do I find it?

Stormtracker is designed to overlay several observational maps together. To view the Stormtracker click the weather maps link on the left of the home page and choose Stormtracker.

To zoom in click a state name above the map. The default map will display radar and lightning. Other options are satellite and observations, viewable by ticking the appropriate box below the map.

Lightning detected over the past three hours is displayed and is faded from white (most current) to blue (oldest) through red. If overlaying observations tick desired fields on the right and hit the refresh button. The default map shows temperatures and wind. Other options are dew point temperature, relative humidity, rain since 9am, pressure and location name.

It is also possible to overlay rivers, roads, district borders and towns. The default map will already display towns. Below the geographic overlay tick boxes there is an option to animate the image over the past 3 hours.

You can also adjust the speed and dwell time of the animation. A control panel to the left allows the option to step through the animation image by image.

The lightning tracker is more accurate across southern and eastern Australia as this is where the majority of its detection sensors are located. The tracker will not detect cloud-to-cloud or intracloud lightning strikes.

• 16:03 AEDT Tropics awakening, increasing risk of cyclones, heavy rain and storms
• 10:49 AEDT Pre-summer heatwave hitting southeastern Australia
• 13:16 AEDT Heavy rain to soak Queensland's central coast on Thursday
• 11:18 AEDT Storm-producing juggernaut drenching the west