SPM 05-30-2020: Trialing & Stationary Storms Increase Rainfall Totals for the Mountains

Issue Date: Saturday, May 30th, 2020
Issue Time: 10:25AM MDT

Summary:

Better moisture was available for the afternoon upslope flow storms that popped yesterday. Storm motion was similar to the previous two days, which meant the big winners were northeast facing slopes over eastern Colorado. Nearly stationary storms/trailing storms helped increase totals over the Southeast Mountains. Max 1-hour rain rates were up to 0.25 inches with 24-hour totals right around 1 inch in Saguache County near the Deckers burn area. A Flash Flood Warning was issued for the Spring Creek burn area at 5:40PM where a spotter recorded 0.56 inches in a 45-minute period. As of this morning, no flooding had been reported.

As storms moved in the adjacent plains, they became sparser in coverage with a nice storm forming over the Greenwood Village area in the afternoon, and an ALERT gage reported 0.67 inches of rainfall near Quincy and Colorado Blvd. Storms also rolled off the Cheyenne Ridge into the Northeast Plains overnight. Totals just over 0.50 inches were estimated by radar.

Over western Colorado, the boundary layer was still dry. This caused some more gusty outflow winds, and the ASOS at the Durango airport recording a 52-mph wind gust. Rainfall was confined to the higher terrains with the highest totals around 0.25 inches.

For precipitation estimates in your neighborhood 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.