SPM 08-12-2020: Heavy Rain from Afternoon and Overnight Storms Along Eastern Border

August 12, 2020 by ·

Issue Date: Wednesday, August 12th, 2020
Issue Time: 11:00AM MDT

Summary:

Afternoon severe thunderstorms rolled through the plains of eastern Colorado yesterday, which brought heavy rain, wind gusts up to 60 mph, and hail up to 1 inch in diameter. Some storms fired again overnight over the Northeast Plains, adding to the rainfall totals this morning. The AHPS QPE analysis this morning indicates up to 3 inches of rain fell over a small area of northeastern Yuma County. The bias-corrected MetStorm Live QPE indicates 24-hour rain totals up to 2.5 inches, with max 1-hour rain rates between 1.5 and 2 inches. Radar shows that storms trained over this area between 11PM and 4AM, and storms also moved through this area quickly yesterday afternoon between 2PM and 5PM. A storm report this morning says that 3.32 inches of rain fell near the CO/KS/NE tri-state border in northeast Yuma County between 11PM and 4AM last night, which was also accompanied with pea-sized hail. The next highest rain gauge total of 1.11 inches is from a CoCoRaHS observer in southwestern Phillips County, which was likely from the afternoon storms. Farther south into Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties, rain gauges picked up as much as 0.44 inches of rain according to CoCoRaHS observers. Over Baca County in southeastern Colorado, a storm dropped up to 0.27 inches of rain according to a rain gauge in Springfield, with the core of the storm estimated at 0.5 inches from the QPE map. Flooding was not reported with any of these storms yesterday.

Interestingly, a dry, weak downburst from an elevated storm over the southern Denver Metro area caused some tree damage and a power outage. This storm was barely even visible on radar. However, yesterday’s morning Denver sounding did indicate strong downdrafts were possible. Wind gusts up to 44 mph were observed by Weather Underground stations near the area.

The Pine Gulch Fire and Grizzly Creek fires continued to burn in western Colorado yesterday with the dry and windy conditions. The Grizzly Creek Fire grew to 3,702 acres, and the Pine Gulch Fire grew to 51,455 acres as of this morning. A wind gust up to 51 mph was reported in Eagle County, indicating some stronger winds from aloft were mixing down to the surface, which has been happening the last few days. This should continue today, so a Red Flag Warning was re-issued for today. Stay up to date on these fires and potential evacuations today by following their social media pages (linked below).

Pine Gulch Fire: https://www.facebook.com/PineGulchFireCO

Grizzly Creek Fire: https://www.facebook.com/GrizzlyCreekFireCO

For rainfall estimates in your area over the last 72 hours, check out our State Precipitation Map below.

Click Here For Map Overview

The map below shows radar-estimated, rainfall gage-adjusted Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) across Colorado. The map is updated daily during the operational season (May 1 – Sep 30) by 11AM. The following six layers are currently available: 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation, as well as maximum 1-hour, 2-hour and 6-hour precipitation over the past 24 hour period (to estimate where flash flooding may have occurred). The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation contain bias corrections that are not disaggregated into the hourly estimates, so there will likely be some differences. The accumulation ending time is 7AM of the date shown in the bottom right corner. Also shown optionally are vulnerable fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new, vulnerable burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.

Filed Under: State Precipitation Map ·

SPM 08-11-2020: Another Fire Breaks Out in Glenwood Canyon with Isolated Storms over the southern I-25 Corridor

August 11, 2020 by ·

Issue Date: Tuesday, August 11th, 2020
Issue Time: 9:55AM MDT

Summary:

Fairly quiet on the rainfall front again with the dry air remaining over the majority of the state. A cold front moved through eastern Colorado and helped cool high temperatures off in the area. Some capping prevented widespread storm return, but an increase in low-level moisture behind the front helped produce some storms over the southern I-25 Corridor. Scattered/isolated storms began to develop by early afternoon, but were mostly outflow driven. In Pueblo County a small area of QPE reached 1 inch, but generally storm totals were closer to 0.75 inches in the small storm cores that formed. Storms ended just after sunset as the instability dropped off. Flooding was not reported.

Another fire started in western Colorado yesterday inside of Glenwood Canyon. The Grizzly Creek fire quickly grew with the dry fuels and it had burned 1,300 acres by last night. The canyon continues to stay closed to traffic today. There was a 45 mph wind gust recorded near Meeker, CO Monday evening, and as you can imagine, these brief winds are not helpful for fire containment. The Pine Gulch fire grew to 30,200+ acres, which has cause very poor air quality for the area. If you want to track the smoke from the fires, you can use this tool from AirNow: Click Me

To see precipitation estimates over your neighborhood the last 72-hours, scroll down to the State Precipitation Map below. There continues to be an error in QPE over Lincoln County, so please disregard the rainfall totals in that area.

Click Here For Map Overview

The map below shows radar-estimated, rainfall gage-adjusted Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) across Colorado. The map is updated daily during the operational season (May 1 – Sep 30) by 11AM. The following six layers are currently available: 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation, as well as maximum 1-hour, 2-hour and 6-hour precipitation over the past 24 hour period (to estimate where flash flooding may have occurred). The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation contain bias corrections that are not disaggregated into the hourly estimates, so there will likely be some differences. The accumulation ending time is 7AM of the date shown in the bottom right corner. Also shown optionally are vulnerable fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new, vulnerable burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.

Filed Under: State Precipitation Map ·

SPM 08-10-2020: Mainly Dry with Weak Storms along Eastern Border

August 10, 2020 by ·

Issue Date: Monday, August 10th, 2020
Issue Time: 10:40AM MDT

Summary:

Once again, a few storms were able to track through the eastern and southeastern border counties of Colorado yesterday, but rain totals remained below 0.5 inches according to the QPE analysis. The highest CoCoRaHS rain gauge report this morning is 0.03 inches in southern Prowers County. A Weather Underground station reported 0.06 inches of rain in northeastern Cheyenne County. Unfortunately, rain gauge locations are few and far between along the eastern plains, so the higher QPE totals cannot be verified. Note that the high QPE totals over eastern Lincoln and southwestern Kit Carson counties are likely ground contamination from radar because storms did not track over this area yesterday. Storms over Kit Carson County produced wind gusts up to 68 mph before tracking east into Kansas. No flooding was reported with the storms over the eastern plains.

Yesterday was mainly dry across the state as temperatures soared, especially over the plains of eastern Colorado. Denver tied a daily high temperature record of 98F. Most locations across the plains reached the upper 90Fs, with a few locations hitting 100F. The western half of the state saw warm temperatures in the mid-90Fs for low-elevation valleys, but temperatures remained well below records. Unfortunately, this heat and dry air allowed the Pine Gulch Fire to continue to burn, which is now up to 25,000 acres. Low humidity will allow continued fire growth today. Smoke from the Pine Gulch Fire has also been affecting air quality in the Grand Valley, central and northern mountain valleys, as well as the Urban Corridor, especially overnight when smoke gets trapped in the shallow nocturnal boundary layer. Expect this smoke to affect similar areas today and tonight.

To see how much rain your area received over the last 24, 48, and 72 hours, check out our State Precipitation Map below.

Click Here For Map Overview

The map below shows radar-estimated, rainfall gage-adjusted Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) across Colorado. The map is updated daily during the operational season (May 1 – Sep 30) by 11AM. The following six layers are currently available: 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation, as well as maximum 1-hour, 2-hour and 6-hour precipitation over the past 24 hour period (to estimate where flash flooding may have occurred). The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation contain bias corrections that are not disaggregated into the hourly estimates, so there will likely be some differences. The accumulation ending time is 7AM of the date shown in the bottom right corner. Also shown optionally are vulnerable fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new, vulnerable burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.
Filed Under: State Precipitation Map ·

SPM 08-09-2020: Border Storms Produce Rain for Cheyenne County

August 9, 2020 by ·

Issue Date: Sunday, August 9th, 2020
Issue Time: 10:45AM MDT

Summary:

Storms mainly avoided Colorado yesterday, but a couple of storms fired over Cheyenne County along the eastern border before moving into Kansas. These storms are visible at 5PM yesterday on the visible + IR “sandwich” satellite image with cold cloud-tops (yellow/red colors on image below). These storms brought the only significant rainfall to the state, with rain gauges reporting up to 0.60 inches of accumulation. QPE indicates up to 2 inches of rain fell in the strongest storm core near the Kansas border, but limited gauges in the area make this hard to verify. Clouds and showers developed over the mountains (blue on satellite image below), but little to no rainfall made it to the ground as the highest CoCoRaHS rain gauge totals were 0.01 inch.

The Pine Gulch Fire continued to burn in western Colorado as its plume of smoke was visible on satellite imagery (see below), which continued to flow northeast into the Northern Mountains. An updated mapping of the fire indicates over 21,000 acres have been burned, which is only 7% contained as of last night. Evacuation and pre-evacuation warnings were sent out by emergency managers yesterday. If you live near the area, stay up to date on this fire. A Facebook page has been created for disseminating fire-related updates and evacuation information, which can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/PineGulchFireCO

For rainfall estimates in your area over the last 24, 48, and 72 hours, check out our State Precipitation Map below.

Click Here For Map Overview

The map below shows radar-estimated, rainfall gage-adjusted Quantitative Precipitation Estimates (QPE) across Colorado. The map is updated daily during the operational season (May 1 – Sep 30) by 11AM. The following six layers are currently available: 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation, as well as maximum 1-hour, 2-hour and 6-hour precipitation over the past 24 hour period (to estimate where flash flooding may have occurred). The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation contain bias corrections that are not disaggregated into the hourly estimates, so there will likely be some differences. The accumulation ending time is 7AM of the date shown in the bottom right corner. Also shown optionally are vulnerable fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new, vulnerable burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.

Filed Under: State Precipitation Map ·
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