Lightning — Montrose, Colorado

2024-06-21 · near Montrose, Montrose, Colorado

$500K

Property damage

Event narrative

One of several strong to severe thunderstorms that passed through the city of Montrose produced a bolt of lightning that struck a house south of town. This then set the house on fire, eventually destroying it.

Wider weather episode

Very deep tropical moisture associated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto combined with monsoonal moisture was forced through eastern Utah and western Colorado due to a large high pressure ridge over the Central U.S. and a deep low pressure trough over the Great Basin. This deep moisture combined with strong instability and shear to produce widespread severe weather across eastern Utah and western Colorado with thunderstorms producing severe wind gusts, large hail and heavy rain which resulted in flash flooding and debris flows. One particular storm even produced a landspout tornado in southeast Utah. Frequent lightning also resulted in lightning damage in Montrose, Colorado.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.4753, -107.8769)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1197822. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.