SPM 07-11-2021: Dry Day Across Colorado

Issue Date: Sunday, July 11, 2021
Issue Time: 9:00 AM MDT

Summary:

Yesterday started with cooler temperatures in the Mountains, Urban Corridor, and Eastern Plains from a late evening-overnight cold front the day before. The Western Slopes and Grand Valley however remained especially hot. Nearly no precipitation was observed across the entire state yesterday, only very small accumulations near the Kansas and Nebraska border from isolated storms, as well as a small cell around Cañon City – still, no precipitation exceeding 0.03 inches was observed. For rainfall estimates in your area, including antecedent conditions, check out the State Precipitation Map at the bottom of today’s post.

The main weather story was the presence of smoke in the air from fires in Colorado and throughout the Western US yesterday. Smoke in the air reduced air quality and left hazy conditions across the state. 9NEWS Meteorologist Cory Reppenhagen shared the following picture of the hazy sunset last night, looking west from the Urban Corridor:

Colorado Front Range tonight #9wx pic.twitter.com/B7DaBzPNpQ

— Cory Reppenhagen (@CReppWx) July 11, 2021

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.