SPM 08-08-2018: Second Round of Severe Thunderstorms Hits Eastern Colorado and Drops Heavy Rainfall

Issue Date: Wednesday, August 8th, 2018
Issue Time: 09:45 AM MDT

Summary:

Another active day on Tuesday with a second round of severe thunderstorms occurring over eastern Colorado. Decent shear and high instability set the stage for another day of strong storms. Thunderstorms on Tuesday were less severe and widespread than Monday, but they still produced some impressive heavy rainfall, strong winds and large hail. Storms first began to fire over the southern mountains by mid-afternoon and then further north during the evening hours. A passing shortwave helped keep storms thriving over the eastern plains during overnight hours and into this morning.

Similar to Monday, there were several severe thunderstorm warnings and even a tornado warning for Weld County near Keota this morning. A brief touchdown was reported in a field with no damage occurring. Storms yesterday were again big hail producers with hail up to 2 inches in diameter occurring under the strongest storm cores. Outflow boundaries from these storms help kick off more thunderstorm action, and a gust of 57 mph was measured at a mesonet station in Strasburg. As far as rainfall, storms yesterday produced 1-hour rain rates just over 1.5 inches. A storm in El Paso County produced 2 inches of rainfall according to radar estimates, which was the largest rain producer of the day. There were a couple of areal flood advisories, though flooding was not reported. Most storms did not track over the same areas that received heavy rainfall on Monday. The Purgatoire river gage at Las Animas is currently in Action stage, but it is not expected to reach Minor flooding.

To see how much precipitation fell over your neighborhood, scroll down to 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 fire burn areas (post 2012), which are updated throughout the season to include new burn areas. The home button in the top left corner resets the map to the original zoom.