Afraid of getting hit by lightning? WeatherBug Elite for Android might help

Weather apps consistently rank behind games as the second most popular class of mobile applications (Source: Nielsen) but does your weather app tell you where you're most likely to be hit by a bolt of lightning?

WeatherBug Elite for Android, which received a major version update today, includes that very feature, called "Lightning Alerts."

Earth Networks, the company responsible for creating WeatherBug, has a network of 500 lightning sensors across the entire US, including Alaska and Hawaii, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as 40 international locations. These sensors detect both cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-to-ground lightning discharges. Because in-cloud lightning occurs much more frequently than cloud-to-ground lightning, Earth Networks says it can analyze its sensor data and predict severe storms faster than radar and other weather detection technologies.

The app's "My Storm Tracker" feature uses your GPS location to tell you how far away you are from lightning cells, based upon the knowledge that lightning has the ability to strike up to ten miles away from the center of storm activity.

WeatherBug Elite is available for $1.99 in Google Play, and is also available for iOS in the iTunes App Store.

Of course, the odds of you actually being struck by lightning in a given year are a million to one according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). So if you feel comfortable with those odds, you can save yourself two bucks and stick to the free WeatherBug app, or try one of the many other free options on Android.