SPM 08-08-2019: Widespread Severe Thunderstorms over the Eastern Plains

Issue Date: Thursday, August 8, 2019
Issue Time: 10:40AM MDT

Summary:

Another day of heavy rainfall and severe thunderstorms over the far eastern plains. The dryline set up farther to the southwest than originally forecast, which allowed for severe thunderstorms to form over the Southeast Plains. Most storms also initiated later than expected, but once a few storms were able to generate, gust fronts did the rest of the work spreading out storm coverage. There were a few isolated reports of hail over Cheyenne, Elbert, Kiowa Counties, with golf ball sized hail reported over Cheyenne Wells! Heavy rainfall of 1.53 inches was measured over a two hour period near Burlington in Kit Carson County, with an additional report of 2.2 inches near Stratton. The highest radar derived measurements for the day occurred in Kiowa and Washington Counties, measuring up to 3 inches in isolated areas. Surface reports from CoCoRaHS stations reported up to 2.24 inches of rain in Morgan County, giving the area the highest surface measurement of the day. A few brief storms over the Urban Corridor measured up to 0.47 inches at a UDFCD Alert gage at the Englewood Dam in Arapahoe County.

Back to the west storms lasted throughout the day, but lack of instability kept storms from producing brief periods of heavy rainfall. The San Juan Mountains had the highest accumulations for the day, with a CoCoRaHS station in northern La Plata County near the 416 burn area measuring up to 0.51 inches. However, no flooding was reported over the burn area. A RAWS station near Buckles in southern Conejos County reported up to 0.38 inches of rain over a 3 hour period. Surface reports throughout the high country indicated measurable precipitation, however most reports were of less than 0.11 inches over 24 hours. A Flash Flood warning was issued by the NWS over the Spring Creek burn area, however no flooding was reported.

For a look at precipitation over your area, please see the 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.