SPM 05-21-2020: Very Hot, Windy and Dry for Most With Isolated Heavy Rainfall Northeast

Issue Date: Thursday, May 21st, 2020
Issue Time: 11AM MDT

Summary:

Very hot weather persisted across most of the state on Wednesday with high temperatures running up to 20F above normal in parts of the state. In addition, extremely gust winds were observed statewide with peak gusts exceeding 55 mph. As expected, a line of thunderstorms developed across the Northeast Plains during the late afternoon, persisting into the evening hours. Moderate to isolated heavy rainfall was observed with these storms along with gusty winds, hail up to 1.5 inches and a few reports of a landspout type tornado in Weld County. The highest observed rainfall was 0.33 inches in Briggsdale (CoCoRaHS) but it is likely that isolated amounts exceeding 1 inch occurred in areas where storms persisted for a few hours.

As of this writing, flooding was not reported on Wednesday.

For precipitation estimates in your area over the last 24-hours, scroll down to 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.