SPM 05-08-2019: Showers and Thunderstorms Continued on Tuesday with the Approaching Low

Issue Date: Wednesday, May 8th, 2019
Issue Time: 9:40AM MDT

Summary:

The low begin to move eastward and stayed just south of Colorado yesterday. This provided lift for some widespread shower activity and a cloudy/foggy start to the morning. Dense fog was present throughout the day near the Colorado and Kansas border. By the time the lift had moved over the Front Range, not quite enough daytime heating had occurred due to the heavy cloud cover in the morning, so multiple rounds of showers kept instability low and prevented organized storms along the Urban Corridor. Decent accumulations and beneficial rainfall occurred with radar indicating widespread values of 0.4 to 0.5 inches and up to 1 inch in southern Weld County. Another wave moved through southeastern Colorado, which triggered storms along the Southeast Mountains and Raton Ridge. Max 1-hr rain rates up to 0.5 inches were realized with a 24-hr total of 0.7 inches reported by a CoCoRaHS station in Baca County. Lastly, some late night convection occurred over the northeast corner of the state. CoCoRaHS in the area indicate this produced as much as 1.3 inches in Phillips County. No severe storms or flooding were reported yesterday.

To see precipitation totals over in your neighborhood on Tuesday, scroll down to the State Precipitation Map below. Note the 2.5 inches near Parker is an error. Totals in this area were between 0.4 and 0.5 inches (ALERT).

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.