SPM 06-19-2021: Widespread Afternoon and Evening Thunderstorms

Issue Date: Saturday, June 19, 2021
Issue Time: 9:35 AM MDT

Summary:

The atmosphere was active across Colorado yesterday, with the presence of a frontal passage from northeast moving south across the state in the early afternoon. This resulted in thunderstorms developing ahead of it along the Front Range Mountains and Eastern Plains. The Central and San Juan Mountains also had widespread thunderstorm activity in the afternoon yesterday, and benefited from increased atmospheric moisture, as discussed in the Flood Threat Bulletin yesterday.

Overall storms were fairly benign though. Rainfall rates did not exceed 0.25 inches/hour aside from a line of storms in Southwest Colorado. Low rainfall rates translated to similarly low rainfall totals, as seen in the State Precipitation Map below. There was some light hail reported, but nothing to reach severe designation, and a lone thunderstorm wind gust of 45 mph was reported at Garfield County Regional Airport. No flooding was reported on Friday. For additional rainfall totals in your area, check out 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.