SPM 06-18-2021: Heat Burst in Pueblo

Issue Date: Friday, June 18, 2021
Issue Time: 9:15 AM MDT

Summary:

Yesterday was the last day of especially hot weather across Colorado, with high 90s and 100s observed all across the state. There was scattered thunderstorm activity in the late afternoon and evening, however rainfall rates were low along with overall accumulation. For rainfall estimates in your area, check out the State Precipitation Map at the bottom of this post. Flooding was also not reported on Thursday.

In other unusual weather news, a heat burst was observed at the NWS office in Pueblo around 9:00 pm last night.

At 8:55 pm this evening, a local “heat burst” occurred at the National Weather Service office at Pueblo. As the heat burst was occurring, it got very windy at the weather office and the temperature shot up to 95 degrees F.

— NWS Pueblo (@NWSPueblo) June 18, 2021

During the heat burst, winds gusted up to 62 mph as the temperature quickly rose to 95 degrees and humidity decreased. The quick increase in temperature and decrease in dewpoint can be seen highlighted in yellow in the time series plot below from Pueblo Memorial Airport. Heat bursts are a rare occurrence, and the result of a dissipating thunderstorm and a hot and dry atmosphere. More information on heart bursts can be found here.

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.