SPM 08-04-2020: Flash Flooding at Spring Creek burn area

Issue Date: Tuesday, August 4th, 2020
Issue Time: 10:55AM MDT

Summary:

Storms generated some flash flooding over the Spring Creek burn area yesterday. Three flash flood reports were generated southwest of the town of La Veta, over the southern portion of the Spring Creek burn area. Rushing water overtopped county route 421 and highway 12, and a debris flow closed a section of highway 12. USGS rain gauges in this area recorded up to 0.98 inches of rain, which is well over the expected 0.5 inch threshold for flash flooding. Nearby CoCoRaHS observers reported 0.54 and 0.7 inches of rain, which backs up the USGS rain gauge. The QPE map agrees with these totals and shows most of the southern half of the burn area likely picked up over 0.5 inches. This rainfall warranted the flash flood warnings issued by NWS Pueblo. Decent rain totals were also observed over the Raton Ridge as numerous storms moved over the area well into the evening hours, but limited rain gauges in the area indicate just under 0.5 inches fell.

Storms that fired over the southern Front Range produced isolated areas of moderate rainfall over 0.5 inches. The heaviest rain from a severe-warned storm that fired over northwestern Elbert County. Between 0.77 and 1.0 inches of rain was reported by CoCoRaHS observers from this storm, with the heaviest rain falling over the town of Elizabeth.

For rainfall estimates in your area over the last 24 hours, check out our 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.