Lightning Flash Density Maps of Colorado, the United States and the World
Below are the links to the lightning flash density maps. The maps of Colorado and the United Statea show the number of Cloud to Ground (CG) lightning flashes per square kilometer per year. If you wish to convert flashes per square kilometer per year to flashes per square mile per year, multiply the values on the map by 2.59.
The lightning flash density maps of the world show total lightning activity.
All lightning flash density plots for the state of Colorado are calculated with a spatial resolution of 0.2o latitude by 0.2o longitude squares. This corresponds to an approximate resolution of 400 km2 for the state of
All of the Colorado lightning plots were calculated internally at the National Weather Service office in Pueblo. The lightning data is from Vaisala.
Table of Contents
Flash density map of Colorado - County outlines only or county outlines with county names.
Hour by Hour flash density maps of Colorado: 00Z, 01Z, 02Z, 03Z, 04Z, 05Z, 06Z, 07Z, 08Z, 09Z, 10Z, 11Z , 12Z, 13Z, 14Z, 15Z, 16Z, 17Z, 18Z, 19Z, 20Z, 21Z, 22Z, 23Z, LOOP (NOTE: 12Z = 6 am MDT, 13Z = 7am MDT...)
Monthly flash density maps for Colorado - JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, MAY, JUN, JUL, AUG, SEP, OCT, NOV, DEC,
Lightning climatology of Colorado - PDF Document
Table showing the number of lightning flashes per hour for each month for the state of Colorado. The number of flashes for each day of the month are also shown.
Map of estimated number of cloud to ground lightning flashes per county in Colorado
Hi resolution flash density map the United States - courtesy of Vaisala
Most of the CG lightning occurs over the Gulf Coast states and Florida (map). Florida leads the nation for CG lightning. Many other States have much more CG lightning than Colorado. There is a misconception that Colorado is 2nd in the nation with respect to the amount of CG lightning activity; this is not true. The Centennial State ranks 26th in the nation with respect to CG lightning.
Approximately 22 million lightning flashes occur over the United States per year.
Lightning Flash Density of the world
This map shows the lightning flash density of the world. This map is different from the other maps as it includes ALL types of lightning (the Colorado maps and United States maps only showed cloud to ground lightning flash density information). If you want to learn more about this map, go here. An excellent web site to learn about lightning, and weather in general, can be found here.
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