Kalina Jinzo, 40, died seven days later. She was the first of two people killed by lightning in New Mexico last year. Her boyfriend was not injured.
“I think about it every day,” said Don Jinzo, 62, of Los Lunas. “It’s been a year already, and we all miss her a lot.”
Weather forecasters say the monsoon season is finally here, bringing predictions of torrential rains, flash floods and thunderstorms all week. Over the weekend, the Santa Fe National Forest reported nearly 1,000 lightning strikes.
The season typically runs from mid-June through September, but the regular afternoon storms characteristic of the season only began in recent weeks in Northern New Mexico.
The wet weather is welcome in New Mexico, where nearly 96 percent of the state is classified by the U.S. Drought Monitor as abnormally dry, or worse.
But with the prediction of storms comes dangers. The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch through late Tuesday night. Flash floods are the top cause for weather-related deaths in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which says it only takes six inches of rushing water to knock a person down and two feet to sweep away a vehicle.
Santa Fe County Emergency Manager Martin Vigil warned people never to cross arroyos running with water during monsoons, in part because of uncertainty of what’s under the surface.
Knowing which arroyos are likely to produce flash flooding is difficult, he said, because monsoon storms tend to pour down water rapidly in concentrated areas. “It’s not something that you can really predict every monsoon season,” he said.
Lightning is another big danger. The chances of being struck by lightning in your lifetime are about 1 in 12,000, but 21 people nationwide have died already this year from strikes while hiking, golfing, loading a truck, standing with a dog and generally being outside, according to a National Weather Service database.
About two-thirds of all people struck by lightning in the country are outside enjoying leisure or recreational activities. Fishing is the most common fatal activity, followed by boating, soccer and golf.
No one has died this year in New Mexico. In 2015 and 2014, however, three people, including Don Jinzo’s daughter, died while riding motorcycles.
Shawn Bennett, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque, said a lightning bolt can strike from 30 miles away, and locked within its main channel is a heat that exceeds that of the sun.
“It’s a dangerous and beautiful phenomenon at the same time,” he said. “And it happens so quick.”
Like Don Jinzo, the 58-year-old forecaster lost a family member to lightning strike, in May 1978 in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. His brother, then 17, was fishing with a friend when a storm rolled in overhead. Both boys ran for cover under a ponderosa pine.
Forest officials warn people to stay away from lone trees as well as rocky outcrops, cliff edges and bodies of water. The main channel of a lightning bolt struck his brother, killing him. His brother’s friend was hit indirectly and eventually recovered.
“If you hear thunder, you at least have a chance,” he said. “It’s your warning.”
Bennett has had 38 years to heal from his brother’s death. Don Jinzo has had only one. He and his wife now care for his late daughter’s two girls, 11 and 15 years old.
“It still hurts,” he said last week, his voice cracking with emotion over the phone.
The randomness of her death is still puzzling, he said. Other objects along the road — trees, telephone poles — should have been struck before his daughter, he said. And why, he asked, was her boyfriend unharmed while all the electronics on his motorcycle were fried?
“Before, I heard people die of lightning, but I never thought it would happen to one of my family members,” he said. “It changed a lot.”
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