Half a million bolts of lightning hit the ground in Colorado each year. And when a thunderstorm is moving through southern Colorado, you'll see the First Alert 5 team showing you those lightning strikes on radar.
But lightning detection doesn't use radar. Instead, we rely on a system of radio antennas, like the one in this photo. And yes, these are similar to the radio antennas in your car.
A lightning strike is nature's dramatic way of restoring balance. Storm clouds get positively and negatively electrically charged from collisions of ice crystals in the cloud.
The ground develops an opposite charge to the cloud. And when enough charge has built up... boom... a strike occurs to equalize the charge again.
When this happens, the lightning emits a radio wave.
If you've ever heard your car radio hum or go in and out during a thunderstorm, that's why. There's a lot of science behind this, but that's what you need to know.
The radio wave moves outward and gets picked up by a wide network of antennas on the ground. Once the wave hits three sensors, computers can figure out exactly where that lightning strike hit.
That information gets sent to a central network covering the whole country, and it's that network that we use to show you where lightning strikes are occurring.
Since June is a peak thunderstorm month in Colorado, let's talk safety. Anything outdoors is dangerous in a thunderstorm. Even if you're under a tent, a canopy, or a gazebo, lightning can still strike you. An enclosed vehicle or building is the only safe shelter during a thunderstorm.
So it's a complex network of ground-based stations that let us detect lightning and show it to you. But the main takeaway is... if a thunderstorm is headed your way... go indoors.
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