Severe Thunderstorms in the Northeast and Northern Plains; Critical Fire Weather in the West

Scattered severe thunderstorms capable of damaging wind gusts and hail are forecast across the Northeast U.S. and North Dakota today. Heavy to excessive rainfall is possible over eastern New Mexico into western Texas and over the western Florida peninsula today. Critical fire weather conditions will persist today over parts of the interior Northwest and Great Basin. Read More >

Are you planning an outdoor activity within the next few days? If so, and if thunderstorms are in the forecast, then you should try to determine the expected potential for lightning that could threaten you and others. Paying attention to the latest forecast and being flexible to change your plans to stay safe from lightning is always a good action to take.

To help you stay safe from lightning threats, the Lightning Potential Index (LPI) was developed by the National Weather Service as a planning tool. The experimental LPI is routinely generated for areas of western Colorado and eastern Utah that shows you where and when cloud-to-ground lighting is expected out to 60 hours into the future. More specifically, the LPI provides lightning expectations in three-hour increments and is updated every 3 hours to give you the very latest forecast information.

You can find the Lightning Potential Index forecasts from the “Forecasts” drop-down menu on the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction Forecast Office website, as shown below.

Please check it out and let us know how the LPI works for you! Comments can be provided to our forecast office email address: wxgjt@noaa.gov

Click here for the latest Lightning Potential Index forecasts.

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Severe Thunderstorms in the Northeast and Northern Plains; Critical Fire Weather in the West

Lightning Potential This Weekend