One of the best parts about hawking an oilfield app is that we get to talk to people from all over: Texas, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico. . .

What app should your pumper use to track lightning near the lease?

It depends on what you need. For live lightning strikes near your tanks, use a weather app with real-time lightning alerts, like WeatherBug. That is the better pick for this job, and it runs on iPhone and Android. GreaseBook does not track weather. It records gauges, run tickets and pumper comments, so run it alongside the weather app. If storms keep your pumper off the tanks for days, TinyPumper reads tank levels and pressures remotely, so nobody has to climb a tank to know what it did. Either way, when lightning is close, stay off the tanks.

And, every so often, one of our users sends us a really cool oilfield app they’ve found to be especially helpful — David Umphres (a rock star lease operator from Giddings, TX) who pumps for companies like Trivsita Ops (Houston, TX), Cirrus Production (Enid, OK), D.O.G. Operating (Port Aransas, TX) is just such a user…

Now, weather reports are nice for anyone working in the field (pumpers, roustabouts, or any one working on a rig…)

However, it’s something all together different when you’re climbing up on those oil tanks when there’s lightning close by…

Lightning strikes 1000bbl storage tank…

Now, we’d heard of the Weatherbug app, but we had no idea it displayed lightning strike reports in real-time.

Check out the screenshot that David sent in from his app while in the field…

Our friend David is running his Greasebook on an iPad, but the Weatherbug app is available for Android and Windows Phone platforms, too.

A BIG “thank you” to David for tipping us off to a great oilfield app!

And remember, when there’s lightning — stay off those tanks…

Here’s to safe operating,

~ Greasebook

Got any great oilfield apps of your own? Be sure to post them in the comments below!

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