SPM 08-20-2019: Hot Weather with a Few Severe Thunderstorms over the Eastern Plains

Issue Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Issue Time: 10:50AM MDT

Summary:

Yesterday was mostly hot and dry with multiple high temperature records broken over the eastern plains. Denver International Airport broke a high temperature record of 97°F set back in 1986 with a high of 99°F yesterday. Airports in Boulder, Limon, Centennial and CSU in Fort Collins also broke their high temperature records. As far as rainfall goes, almost all of the state remained dry except for Yuma, Prowers and Baca Counties. Isolated severe thunderstorms began yesterday around the time of peak heating along the dryline. The strongest storm of the day was over Yuma County (near Vernon) where there were three reports of hail ranging in size from pennies to golf balls. Radar derived up to 1.97 inches of rain in 1 hour within the storm over Yuma County, however this total may be inflated due to hail contamination. Flooding was not reported as of this morning. Surface reports are sparse over these areas, however a COOP station near Holly in Prowers County reported 0.8 inches of rain over a 45 minute period around 4PM yesterday. There were no reports of rain elsewhere and relative humidity dropped into the teens and single digits throughout western Colorado once again. The area with higher surface winds (15-20 mph) and low relativity humidity wasn’t large enough or persistent enough for a Red Flag Warning to be issued.

For a look at precipitation over your area, please visit 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.