Issue Date: Wednesday, August 11th, 2021
Issue Time: 8:30PM MDT
— Flooding is NOT expected today
As shown in the visible satellite image, below, Colorado remains stuck between a relatively active monsoon pattern well to the south and a large-scale trough well to the north. In between, very little steering flow implies not much, if any, dynamical support for rainfall. Looking at moisture this morning, it remains well below average with Denver’s PW at 0.55 inches while Grand Junction’s was 0.55 inches. Higher PW, up to 1 inch, was found over a small area along the KS/OK borders. However, it is expected to drop this afternoon as drier air advects in from the north. A couple of weak boundaries marked by wind shifts were noted over the Northeast Plains and Southeast Plains. The northern boundary will be too dry to generate any rainfall. However, the southern boundary is expected to produce isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms over the far southeastern areas this afternoon and evening. Short-term moderate to heavy rainfall is possible, but flooding is not expected with these storms. Isolated showers or a weak storm are also possible over the climatologically favored Sangre de Cristo and San Juan mountains, but will yield little if any rainfall.
In a bit of good news, smoke concentrations, should continue to slowly drop across Colorado today. However, the Urban Corridor and surrounding areas remain under an Air Quality Alert, due to both smoke and ozone, now for over 30 consecutive days.
Today’s Flood Threat Map
For more information on today’s flood threat, see the map below. If there is a threat, hover over the threat areas for more details, and click on burn areas to learn more about them. For Zone-Specific forecasts, scroll below the threat map.
Zone-Specific Forecasts:
San Juan Mountains, San Luis Valley, Southeast Mountains, Southwest Slope, Raton Ridge and Southeast Plains:
Hot with isolated to widely scattered showers and storms possible, with the highest coverage near the OK/KS tri-state border. Max 1-hour rainfall up to 0.9 inches possible in the far southeast areas, along with a chance for damaging wind gusts. Max 1-hour rainfall up to 0.3 inches over the foothills and higher terrain. Flooding is NOT expected today.
Primetime:
4pm to 10pm (far southeast)
12pm to 8pm (foothills & higher terrain)
Grand Valley, Northwest Slope, Central Mountains, Northern Mountains, Palmer Ridge, Front Range, Urban Corridor and Northeast Plains:
Mostly sunny, very hot and dry today with temperatures about 5F above seasonal normal. Patches of smoke will remain over parts of the area, and an Air Quality Alert remains in place along the I-25 corridor from Colorado Springs northward.
