SPM 08-29-2020: Widespread Beneficial Rainfall, Heavy Rain in Southeast Plains

Issue Date: Saturday, August 29th, 2020
Issue Time: 11:00AM MDT

Summary:

Beneficial rainfall covered much of Colorado yesterday, with most of it creating rainfall totals up to 0.5 inches. However, some locations were able to pick up some heavy rain totals, particularly in the Southeast Plains, where a convective system dropped up to 2.53 inches according to a USGS rain gauge in northeast Las Animas County. A CoCoRaHS gauge also reported 2.52 inches of rain just north in southeast Otero County, indicating this heavy rain was not an isolated event. In fact, today’s QPE map shows much of the northern Raton Ridge and southern Southeast Plains regions picked up over 0.5 inches. Fortunately, no flooding was reported with the heavy rain in this area, likely due to the prolonged period of rainfall and the dry soils. A Flash Flood Warning was issued by NWS Pueblo for the Spring Creek burn area last evening, but no reports of flooding have come in as of this morning. Rain gauges near the area indicate up to 0.3 inches of rain fell, with one gauge reporting up to 0.42 inches (CoCoRaHS). Rain totals up to 0.6 inches were reported by CoCoRaHS observers in Custer County, in the Southeast Mountains, with up to 0.44 inches reported in Boulder County along the Front Range.

Yesterday was also our first day of cooler air in quite awhile along the eastern plains as a cold front moved through. Denver only high a high temperature of 80F, 5 degrees below average. Some locations along the Urban Corridor didn’t even get out of the 70Fs. This is a welcome relief.

Ongoing large fire update (as of 11:00 AM on InciWeb):
Pine Gulch – north of Grand Junction: 139,006 acres; 77% contained (Colorado’s LARGEST WILDFIRE)
Grizzly Creek – Glenwood Canyon: 32,448 acres; 71% contained (little growth, increased containment)
Cameron Peak – Medicine Bow Mountains: 23,007 acres; 0% contained
Williams Fork – Arapaho National Forest: 12,079 acres; 5% contained

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.