SPM 08-07-2019: Severe Thunderstorms over the Far Eastern Plains

Issue Date: Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Issue Time: 10:50AM MDT

Summary:

A brief round of isolated severe thunderstorms moved south over the far eastern plains along a dryline late yesterday and early this morning.  Storms were very high based, creating isolated areas of heavy rainfall.  Hail up 0.7 inches in diameter was reported to have lasted for 10 minutes to the west of Kit Carson in Cheyenne County.  Radar derived up to 2 inches of rain over Kit Carson and eastern Lincoln Counties last night, however surface reports throughout the area are sparse, so estimates may have been contaminated by hail.  The highest surface report over the eastern plains yesterday was measured by a CoCoRaHS station in Kiowa County near Eads, at 0.73 inches.  Severe thunderstorms over Bent County prompted the issuance of an Areal Flood Advisory by the NWS at 8:45 PM, however no flooding was reported over the area.  Isolated storms over El Paso County produced 24-hour rainfall totals up to 0.39 inches near Colorado Springs.  Radar derived up to 0.5 inches of rain over the northern edge of the Spring Creek burn area, however a CoCoRaHS station measured only 0.12 inches, implying that the storms were likely high based as well.

Back to the west it stayed pretty dry over most areas, with the exception of the Southwest Slope and southern San Juan Mountains.  Pockets of moisture came into the area from the southwest, providing moderate 24-hour totals over Montezuma, La Plata and Archuleta Counties.  An isolated thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon produced between 0.4 and 0.77 inches of rain near Pagosa Springs over a two hour period. Trace amounts of rainfall were measured over the Grand Valley, Northwest Slope, Central Mountains and Northern Mountains.  An isolated thunderstorm produced wind gusts up to 45 mph near Craig in eastern Moffat County.  No flooding was reported yesterday.

For a look at precipitation over your area, please visit the State Precipitation Map below.

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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.