Issue Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Issue Time: 08:35AM MDT
— Flooding is NOT expected today
The ridge marked in the visible imagery below will slide east today over Colorado. Currently, Colorado is under northwest flow aloft, and this will become more westerly this afternoon as the ridge flattens out due to a passing trough to the north. This should pull in dry, warm air and mix out the majority of the residual surface moisture. Temperatures are expected to continue to climb today with highs reaching close to 100F over the Southeast Plains, San Luis Valley and Grand Valley. Other lower elevations will reach the mid-90Fs with low 80Fs in the mountain valleys. Low level water vapor imagery shows there is a small disturbance in the ridge that is currently over northern Utah. As this moves over Colorado later this afternoon/evening, it is forecast to increase cloud cover over the mountains. However, since not much moisture will be available for showers and thunderstorms only trace amounts of rainfall are expected with plenty of virga. There may be some brief, gusty winds under the cores of the elevated storms. As anticipated, flooding is not expected today.
Today’s Flood Threat Map
For more information on today’s flood threat, see the map below. For Zone-Specific forecasts, scroll below the map.
Zone-Specific Forecasts:
Front Range, Urban Corridor, Southeast Mountains, Raton Ridge, Southeast Plains, Palmer Ridge, Northeast Plains:
A little bit of fog today over the northeast corner of the state as seen in the visible satellite image. This should burn off quickly as the sun provides some warming. Showers and thunderstorms are not expected today due to very dry air in the lower levels, but there will be some increased cloud cover this afternoon over the higher terrains. Plenty of virga with these elevated storms, so there may be some brief, gusty winds. High temperatures will climb to the mid-90Fs and above over the lower elevations with 70Fs and 80Fs in the mountains.
San Luis Valley, San Juan Mountains, Northern Mountains, Southwest Slope, Grand Valley, Central Mountains, Northwest Slope:
Over the northwest corner of the state, critical fire weather will be reached as the upper level disturbance over Utah ushers in gusty winds to drop humidity levels to the single digits. A Red Flag Warning is in place through this evening. Elsewhere, there will be some increased cloud cover over the higher terrains this afternoon, but rain is not expected. High temperatures will be on the rise increasing 5-8F from yesterday and the Grand Valley and San Luis Valley may hit 100F.
