SPM 05-26-2021: Minor Flooding along Purgatoire River near Las Animas, CO

Issue Date: Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Issue Time: 9:15 am MDT

Summary

High pressure in Western Colorado yesterday dominated the weather pattern across the state, creating warm and dry conditions. There ware a handful of 0.0 – 0.1 inch precipitation observations along the Front Range and Eastern Plains from CoCoRaHS observers, but nothing widespread or significant. For rainfall estimates in your area, check out our State Precipitation Map at the bottom of today’s post.

A lack of rain does not mean there was no reported flooding yesterday though. A flood warning was issued for the Purgatoire River near Las Animas in Bent County on Monday evening, and the warning was updated regularly yesterday to reflect the continued threat. The hydrograph below shows gauge height in feet at the Purgatoire River near Las Animas, where late yesterday and early this morning the height exceeded the NWS flood stage and indicated minor flooding was occurring. As of 7:25 am this morning, the warning is still in effect.

In Northern Colorado, several gauges along the Cache la Poudre river are also experiencing higher than normal streamflow

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 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.

Note: The 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour total precipitation do not contain bias corrections today due to errors in the CoCoRaHS data. This means there may be underestimations in QPE over the southwest and southeast corners of the state.