Before It Strikes — Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of the Before It Strikes app and website (the “Service”). By downloading, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you don’t agree, please don’t use the Service.

Please read this first — safety

Before It Strikes is a situational-awareness tool. Its lightning predictions, storm scoring, and other derived features are experimental and provided for information only. Official National Weather Service warnings are always the authoritative source of truth. Don't rely solely on our Service in place of official warnings, emergency instructions, or lightning-safety guidance. When in doubt, seek shelter.

1. Who can use the Service

You must be at least 13 years old to use the Service. If you use it on behalf of an organization, you represent that you’re authorized to accept these Terms for that organization.

2. The Service

Before It Strikes surfaces official weather products (such as National Weather Service warnings, watches, and outlooks) alongside radar and derived, experimental features like lightning prediction and storm tracking. A free tier is available to everyone. We also offer a paid subscription, Before It Strikes Pro, which adds precise, licensed ground-based lightning detection, forecasted all-clear times, and Bolt, an AI safety assistant that answers questions about your current situation (see Section 13). We may add, change, or remove features at any time.

3. License

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a personal, limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the Service for your own non-commercial purposes. We reserve all rights not expressly granted.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Copy, scrape, harvest, resell, or redistribute data from the Service, or use it to build a competing product, except where the underlying data is public-domain government data used from its original source;
Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app, except as permitted by law;
Access the Service through automated means or interfere with its normal operation, security, or infrastructure;
Use the Service in any unlawful way, or in any way that could harm us, other users, or the public.

5. Intellectual property

The Service — including its software, design, branding, and our derived products (such as lightning prediction, threat scoring, and storm analytics) — is owned by Before It Strikes and protected by intellectual-property laws. The underlying official weather products come from public government sources (such as the National Weather Service, the Storm Prediction Center, and NOAA) and are used as source data; we make no claim to that public data itself.

6. Third-party services

The Service relies on third parties — including Apple (for app distribution and notifications), Mapbox (for maps and radar rendering), Stripe (for subscription payments), Anthropic (which powers the Bolt AI assistant; your questions and related context are processed by Anthropic to generate responses), and Earth Networks (which licenses the precise lightning data used in Pro). Your use of those components may also be subject to their respective terms, and we are not responsible for third-party services.

7. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error-free, or that any weather information, prediction, or alert will be accurate, complete, or delivered. Weather is inherently unpredictable, and our experimental features may be wrong or unavailable. You use the Service at your own risk.

The Bolt AI assistant generates responses automatically and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or unavailable. Bolt explains your situation and general safety guidance; it is not a substitute for official National Weather Service warnings, for the app’s own safety readings, or for your own judgment, and you must not rely on it as your sole basis for a safety decision. Subscribing to Pro does not make any weather information, prediction, all-clear time, or AI response guaranteed, official, or error-free.

8. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, BEFORE IT STRIKES AND ITS OWNERS, OPERATORS, AND SUPPLIERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, PROPERTY, OR — TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW — PERSONAL INJURY, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SERVICE OR ANY WEATHER INFORMATION IT PROVIDES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CLAIM RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Before It Strikes and its owners and operators from any claims, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of your misuse of the Service or your violation of these Terms.

10. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we’ll revise the “Last updated” date above, and your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the revised Terms.

11. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time. We may suspend or end your access to the Service if you violate these Terms or to protect the Service or its users. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnification) will survive.

12. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the United States and the state in which Before It Strikes operates, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute will be resolved in the courts located there, unless applicable law requires otherwise.

13. Before It Strikes Pro (subscriptions)

Before It Strikes Pro is an auto-renewing paid subscription. Current pricing is shown in the app and on our website (for example, $10 per month or $75 per year) and may change; we will give notice of any price change as required by law.

Auto-renewal. The subscription renews automatically for successive periods and your payment method is charged at the then-current price, unless you cancel before the end of the current period.
Billing. Subscriptions are purchased on our website and billed through Stripe. Your payment relationship is with Stripe and subject to their terms.
Cancellation. You can cancel at any time through the subscription-management link we provide. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period, and you keep access until then.
Refunds. All sales are final. Payments are non-refundable, except (a) where required by law, and (b) if the Service was broken on our end and you were unable to use the app for a billing month, in which case we will refund that month. See our Refund Policy for details.

Pro features — including precise lightning detection, forecasted all-clear times, and the Bolt assistant — are provided on the same “as is” basis and subject to the same disclaimers and limitations of liability as the rest of the Service.

14. Text-message (SMS) alerts

Before It Strikes Pro can deliver lightning-safety alerts by text message (SMS) to recipients an organization designates. By opting in, you agree to the following:

Consent. A recipient is added by their organization’s administrator and confirms opt-in before any alert is sent. Opting in to text alerts is not a condition of any purchase.
What you receive. Transactional lightning-safety alerts (shelter, approaching, and all-clear) for the venues the number is assigned to, plus opt-in, STOP, and HELP responses. These are not marketing messages.
Message frequency varies with the weather: none during clear conditions, and possibly several during an active storm.
Message and data rates may apply. Your mobile carrier’s standard charges are your responsibility. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.
Opting out. Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving text alerts, or HELP for assistance. We do not sell or share mobile numbers or SMS consent with third parties for marketing; see our Privacy Policy.
Not a guaranteed channel. SMS delivery depends on carriers and networks outside our control and must not be relied upon as your only source of weather-safety information. Official National Weather Service warnings remain the authority.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Email [email protected].