1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 18, 2:15 PM MST, 6 hours 45 minutes earlier.
NORTHEAST AND NORTH CENTRAL COLORADO AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER COLORADO 315 PM MDT SAT MAY 18 2001 SHORT TERM DISCUSSION: UPR LVL DISTURBANCE IS STILL OVR NRN UT THIS AFTN...PROGREESING EWD. LIGHTNING DATA SHOWS STRIKES OVR UT AND A FEW HITS OVR THE NW MTNS. THE EVENING CONVECTION SEEMS LIKE IT WILL ONLY HOLD TOGETHER OVER THE MTNS. DEWPTS ALG THE I-25 CORRIDOR HAVE DROPPED TO THE LOW 30S AND WSR-88D SHOWS SHOWERS DISSIPATING AS THEY MOVE AWAY FROM THE FTHLS. IT APPRS THAT THE REST OF THE PLAINS SHOULD NOT SEE ANY SHOWERS SINCE THE DAYLIGHT HEATING WILL BE ENDING BEFORE THE CONVECTIVE INHIBITION IS OVERCOME. ACARS SOUNDINGS SHOW A STRONG INVERSIONS STILL IN PLACE ABOVE 500 MB. AFTER MIDNIGHT THE UPR LVL DISTURBANCE WL BE MOVG OVERHEAD AS A SFC FRONT DROPS SWD OVR THE PLAINS. THE UPSLOPE FLOW SHOULD COMBINE WITH DYNAMIC FORCING ALOFT FOR SCT SHOWER ACTIVITY. KDRBY LONG TERM DISCUSSION: SHORT WAVE WILL MOVE SLOWLY EAST/SOUTHEAST ACROSS THE CWA ON SATURDAY...BRINGING MORE UNSETTLED WEATHER TO THE AREA. THIS SYSTEM LOOKS VERY SIMILAR TO THE ONE THAT CAME THROUGH YESTERDAY ALTHOUGH UPSLOPE AND DYNAMICS ARE SLIGHTLY WEAKER. HOWEVER...WE STILL COME UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF WEAK Q-G FORCING AND RIGHT ENTRANCE REGION OF JET MAX. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND A FEW THUNDERSTORMS LOOK GOOD...BUT WILL HAVE LIKELY POPS OVER THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF THE CWA WHERE BEST MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY EXIST. THEN WE RAPIDLY DRY SATURDAY NIGHT WITH TROF AXIS PASSAGE. NEXT SYSTEM IS THE ONE TO WATCH AS MODELS HAVE BEEN HAVING A TOUGH TIME HANDLING MOVEMENT OF UPPER AIR FEATURES. 12Z RUNS HAVE AGAIN REVERTED TO YESTERDAYS 12Z RUNS OF MUCH COLDER AND DEEPER WITH THE TROF. CANT SEE MUCH REASON TO ARGUE WITH THE DEEPER ETA WITH AMOUNT OF UPPER RIDGING OVER THE GULF OF ALASKA AND STRENGTH OF JET MAX TOPPING THE RIDGE...AND SURFACE TEMPS IN THE 20S IN THE SOURCE REGION. ETA EXTENDED LOOKS DANGEROUS WITH 540 THICKNESS AND BETWEEN 0.5 AND 1 INCH OF PRECIP ON THE PLAINS. WILL HAVE TO WATCH THIS SYSTEM CAREFULLY. THEN BACK TO RIDGING AND MUCH WARMER TEMPS NEXT WEEK. SOME MOISTURE WILL PROBABLY MANIFEST ITSELF UNDER THE RIDGE TO WARRANT A FEW THUNDERSTORMS IN/NEAR THE MOUNTAINS BY MID WEEK. BARJENBRUCH .DEN...NONE.
The Denver radar (KFTG), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 03:59 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A 19-yr old man was killed by lightning as he was walking along the shoulder of U.S. Highway 36 during a thunderstorm.
As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.
| Event | Date | Age | Sex | Where | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning, Adams | 2001-05-18 | 19 | Male | Outside/Open Areas | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, May 2001
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5250065.