Why lightning ranks among the top weather-related killers in Colorado

If you had to guess whether lightning or tornadoes killed more Coloradans each year, you might be shocked by the numbers.

Here’s a hint: It’s not even close.

Since 1959, lightning has killed more than 29 times more Coloradans than tornadoes have. According to statistics from the National Weather Service and Vaisala Group, lightning killed 148 people in Colorado between 1959 and 2017 — tied with Ohio for the fourthhighest raw total of any U.S. state over that time period.

In that same time window, though, only five people have died from tornadoes in Colorado. Yes, tornadoes are obviously dangerous and potentially deadly, but it’s a far more everyday happenstance that poses a far greater risk to your life, particularly here in Colorado.

If you factor in population and lightning deaths, Colorado unflatteringly ranks fourth among the 50 states, with 0.80 deaths per million people from 1959 to 2017. But a deeper dive into the numbers tells another sobering story: Neighboring Wyoming and New Mexico rank first and second in terms of populationweighted lightning death rates.

The primary reason Colorado and regional states are more susceptible to lightning deaths is simple: It comes down to our outdoorsy lifestyle. A March study by the National Weather Service revealed that about two-thirds of people killed by lightning between 2006 and 2018 were “enjoying outdoor leisure activities” at the time they were struck. Nineteen of the 396 total United States lightning fatalities over that 13-year span involved people camping, and water-related activities accounted for a quarter of total lightning fatalities over that same time window.

“In many cases, the victims were only steps away from a vehicle that could have provided safety,” wrote John S. Jensenius Jr., the report’s author and a Lightning Safety Specialist with the National Lightning Safety Council. “In some of these cases, skies may have been obscured by mountains or trees, and the victims just didn’t realize a storm was nearby. In other cases, though, the threat was likely ignored.”

While nobody was killed by lightning in Colorado in 2018, the four combined lightning-related fatalities in 2016 and 2017 all took place as a result of outdoor recreation activities. Places such as open fields, lakes and at or above treeline tend to be popular spots for Coloradans during the summer, but they’re also especially vulnerable to the 50,000-degree heat of a lightning strike.

Still, the probabilities of getting struck or killed by lightning are extremely low — it’s less than a one-in-amillion chance — but it’s large enough that lightning is one of the biggest weather-related causes of death in Colorado.

In an average year, about 500,000 lightning flashes hit Colorado, putting the Centennial State in the top 20 states nationwide in terms of total lightning, according to the National Weather Service. May, June, July and August tend to be the prime months for lightning in Colorado, with June and July usually the peak months for storms.

With Colorado’s traditional stormy season just around the corner, here are some tips to consider as you head out and about this summer:

• If storms are in the forecast, get your hikes done early, ideally by late morning, particularly more remote types of hikes. The earlier, the better.

• If storms are in the forecast, get that round of golf, fishing and anything out on the water done earlier rather than later. Again, a general time window to try to wrap up by should be late morning if storms are forecast.

• The most general rule of thumb to go by: When thunder roars, head indoors. If you’re close enough to hear thunder, that means you’re close enough to be struck by lightning. Think of thunder as a warning cry from Mother Nature. Try to have some sort of safe shelter within easy walking distance — any sort of vehicle or small shelter works just fine.

• If you do get stuck in a storm, seek shelter immediately — again, that can include a vehicle. If no shelter is available, though, try to find some sort of cave, ditch or low point, and crouch as low as possible. Avoid standing under or near a tree or in an open area (a soccer field or on a body of water, for example).

For additional ways and tips to stay safe from lightning this summer, the National Weather Service has a full lightning safety page on its website.