Are you ready for severe weather?

One of the best words to describe the weather in Southern Colorado? Extreme.

The wild weather swings keep more than just the StormTrackers on their toes, it means you should be weather-aware as well.

We’ve certainly already seen severe weather this year. By now, a lot of people are probably tired of seeing snow and ice.

For those people, there is delight in knowing that summer is coming.

But we’ll also be tracking the down side to the warm weather.

There will be plenty of lightning, and it can be deadly.

“We have three fatalities, 11 injuries on average per year,” said Stephen Hodanish.

Hail can be destructive and it’s also quite common in Southern Colorado.

Hodanish said, “That’s the No. 1 severe weather threat we get here because of all the vehicles and roofs that get damaged.”

Flash flooding is a potential problem, especially in parts of El Paso County.

And then there are tornadoes. Jollene Allswort grew up in Otero County and remembers the occasional summer twister.

“We had a few tornado warnings down where I was at,” she said.

Even on beautiful days, our StormTrackers are going to be talking about warnings that are issued by the National Weather Service.

So here is what you need to do to keep your family safe.

Given its reach, staying safe around lightning might seem complicated, but it really isn’t.

“I just stay in my house,” said Bob Liland.

It’s even simpler to stay safe in a flash flood.

“Climb to higher ground,” said Hodanish.

With tornadoes drawing lots of attention, safety rules for them are fairly well known.

“(We would) go right into our bathroom or into a hallway or doorway,” said Liland.

Allswort said, “We would have to take cover in our basement where there’s no windows and try to stay below ground.”

No matter what type of weather Southern Colorado gets. Hodanish says the bottom line when it comes to severe weather safety is: “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

So you can stay safe when the storms rumble.