Finally looked up the stats on our monsoon lightning and I was way off

I moved here 6 years ago and always figured the lightning around July was just scattered, you know, a few strikes here and there. Then last week I got deep into the National Weather Service archives for Albuquerque and found out we average over 40,000 cloud to ground strikes in a single monsoon season. That number blew my mind because I don't think I've ever seen more than a handful of bolts from my porch in the Heights. It turns out most of the strikes hit the open desert east of the Sandias and the lower parts of the valley, so we just don't see them. I checked the county lightning detection maps and the density near the foothills is basically zero compared to places like Edgewood or Belen. Made me realize how much people underestimate our storm activity because nobody posts about the dry lightning zone. Has anyone else looked at those maps and found their neighborhood is in a dead zone for strikes, or am I the only one who geeked out on this? Burque needs a proper lightning viewing spot if this is real.

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