Lightning Hot Spot In Colorado

[PEV1]

Hi all although a subscriber to Net Weather Extra for a few years I am a newbie to this forum.

I am getting too old to drive thousands upon thousands of miles per week on chase trips on the plains ( have done it with an American pal three times in last 12 years) But I am still hooked on chasing!

An alternative to the long drives is to go to Florida in July for the frequent storms but my pal is not keen on Florida as it's not very scenic onstormless days in contrast to the Rockies which are very scenic!

I was looking at lightning frequency charts and posts on this forum and I heard described a 'hot spot' in Colorado whicch alledgedly has an extremly high lightning frequency similar to central Florida .

I know the Rockies front range spawns storms because of the 'upslope phenomenom' so is this what is meant by hot spot or is there a smaller specific area to head for?

Hope someone can help/

Thanks

Ray

[Paul]

Hi Ray, a good option may be Arizona - the lightning tours out there (one of which is currently running) don't involve anywhere near as much travel as the tornado tours in the mid-west, the team stay in the same hotel throughout and generally do a couple of hours travel a day.

Some of the lightning is incredible too, as yesterday showed:

http://forum.netweather.tv/topic/74222-reports-pictures-chase-day-1-wickenburg-prescott/

[PEV1]

Thanks Paul

I could not afford to pay for those tours and am not so old as to need them (yet)

No my option would be Colorado as the desert monsoon can be very unreliable with weeks of no storms

Thanks for your suggestion it's much appreciated.

Ray

[Sprites]

There is setup near Denver called the Denver cyclone, winds fron the rockies meet s.e. winds and set up convergence, leading to thunderstorms landspouts.

This may be what you mean with the lightning Hotspot.

[chionomaniac]

Once you take Florida out of the equation you are struggling.

I guess that you would need a breakdown month by month to get where the lightning hotspots are at any particular time.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/primer/lightning/ltg_climatology.html

[Paul Sherman]

Thanks Paul

I could not afford to pay for those tours and am not so old as to need them (yet)

No my option would be Colorado as the desert monsoon can be very unreliable with weeks of no storms

Thanks for your suggestion it's much appreciated.

Ray

Sorry have to totally disagree with you on the Colorado v Arizona debate.

Arizona would outstrip Colorado by about a ratio of 75/25% over the course of a year for Lightning.

Just bear in mind the state of Arizona has seen Lightning in the State this year every day since July 2nd (Thats a current 53 day on the trot record) and as Paul says you will struggle to do more than 200-300 miles per day whereas Colorado the driving is much more vast (Denver to Goodland) for instance is a 320 mile round trip just on it's own.

There are Burst v Bust modes but that is usually for Monsoon Storms and nothing to do with Lightning frequency.

Good luck with finding the hotspot for Colorado and just for your info the DVCZ (Denver Cyclone) Has only occured twice this year on June 6th and June 7th 2012 if that is what you were thinking of.

Regards

Paul S

[Paul Sherman]

Sorry have to totally disagree with you on the Colorado v Arizona debate.

Arizona would outstrip Colorado by about a ratio of 75/25% over the course of a year for Lightning.

Just bear in mind the state of Arizona has seen Lightning in the State this year every day since July 2nd (Thats a current 53 day on the trot record) and as Paul says you will struggle to do more than 200-300 miles per day whereas Colorado the driving is much more vast (Denver to Goodland) for instance is a 320 mile round trip just on it's own.

There are Burst v Bust modes but that is usually for Monsoon Storms and nothing to do with Lightning frequency.

Good luck with finding the hotspot for Colorado and just for your info the DVCZ (Denver Cyclone) Has only occured twice this year on June 6th and June 7th 2012 if that is what you were thinking of, I also love Colorado for it's scenery and Supercells Storms late May and June are Spectacular the scenery also falls short on what is on offer in Arizona, The Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Meteor Crater, Sedona and 7 Life Zones alone make the scenery out here spectacular.

Regards

Paul S