July 13, 2011 Denver Lightning Superstorms

During the week of July 11th, the eastern Colorado and Front Range urban corridor were hit by some of the most powerful storms in memory. The strong late-summertime high situated over the southern and central plains enhanced the monsoonal moisture pattern, pushing deep moisture normally seen only across the lower central Plains during the height of storm season all the way up to the mountains. The deeper moisture naturally combined with strong daytime heating, with several days pushing highs towards the century mark, and an unusually mild upper air pattern with the jet stream situated well north toward the Canada border to create ideal conditions for slow moving, flooding storms with tremendous lightning.

While the storms were mostly non-tornadic (only one supercell with tornado reports which happened over some barren fields well southeast of Denver), the ferocious lighting shows more than made up for it!!



Above is an awesome strike I captured from the comfort of my back yard on the night of the 13th!
In my opinion that night was the height of the prolific storms pattern with dazzling displays of non-stop strikes of every kind that moved almost over downtown Denver as with the previous night.

The storms then drifted northward over the southeastern part of town where they lost no strength! As I followed carefully through Aurora and up to I-70 east, I witnessed just how powerfully electrified it was!



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Thunderstrike Photography