With thunder & lightning making a return in Colorado, it's time to revise some of our traditional beliefs

It's rough out there in Colorado, one of the most lighting-prone states in the country. Recent storms have delivered spine-shaking thunderous claps of electricity and unnerving bolts that have lit fires and killed. More than 100 people have been killed by lightning in Colorado since 1980, including rancher Mike Morgan, who was killed in Jackson County along with more than 30 cattle in late May. Ten people have died in both Larimer County and El Paso County and nine in Jefferson County as of the latest compiled statistics, not including the last several years.

 "It's scary, it's something we live with. It's a hazard we have here in Colorado," said Greg Heavener, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. "Typically, Colorado averages around maybe half to three quarters-of-a-million lightning strikes every given summer."

Those are just the cloud-to-ground strikes. The greatest area of concentration for bolts is the foothills west of Denver south to the Colorado Springs area. But anywhere can be hit.

While Colorado generally ranks third in the number of lightning strikes, Florida and Texas are larger states. People in Colorado also tend to be outside a great deal.

 Researchers are learning more each year about lightning and the trouble it causes. That has meant revising some of the traditional beliefs.

People are rarely struck first.

"I think it's actually like a percent or two of lightning fatalities are people being struck by themselves," said Heavener.

Far more often they are hit by ground current. That is electricity coming up from the ground when someone is standing by something like a tree.

"The lightning energy is going to follow the water through the trunk into the roots in the ground. If you're standing anywhere along that root system of that tree, lightning will then come up through your feet into your body and cause cardiac arrest," said Heavener.

But staying away from trees isn't always the answer. If caught in an open area, do stay away from lone trees, but an area of even height trees is safer. Better still, says Heavener, is keeping moving toward safety in a metal roofed vehicle (not convertible) or a home or building.

For decades we were taught crouching down can help us be less of a target when caught in the open. Not anymore.

"So don't stop. Keep moving because it makes you a moving target, it's harder for lightning to strike that," said Heavener.

Research has shown that not all lightning bolts are certainly not the same. By far, most are negatively charged. But they are not the most powerful. Tracking and forecasting equipment is adding to knowledge.

"It can tell if it's positive or negative strike," explainer Heavener in the NWS Boulder office, looking at an array of computer screens. "The positive strikes are more powerful, have a lot more energy with them, versus the negative strikes."

But they are far more rare.

"The positive ones, maybe one out of every 10 storms have one positive strike in it."

Those bolts can appear with a blue tinge as compared to the white or reddish of negatively charged lightning.

There are truths -- men are hit far more often than women, possibly due to outdoors work. The sound versus the sight of lightning travels at about a mile for every five seconds, allowing us to calculate approximate distance after a flash. Lightning can be as hot as the sun, with temperatures of 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit. And there are the literal bolts from the blue.

"If you can hear the thunder, you're at harm's way of lightning strikes," says Heavener.

Lightning can hit 15 miles from a storm. That means if you can hear thunder, there is a risk.

"If you're stuck outside, keep moving. Go to a place you know you think you're going to be safe," said Heavener.

And wait until 30 minutes after a storm -- to be safe.