— A LOW<\/strong> flood threat has been issued for the Southwest Slope, San Juan Mountains, Grand Valley, Central Mountains, Northern Mountains, Southeast Mountains, San Luis Valley, Front Range, Urban Corridor, Palmer Ridge, Spring Creek burn area, & Lake Christine burn area<\/em><\/p>\n
A plume of monsoon<\/span> moisture can be seen draped across Colorado on the satellite water vapor image today (below) as a high pressure ridge is in place over the central plains of the US, which is continuing to pump moisture northward. This plume of moisture has boosted PW<\/span> to 1.08 inches at Grand Junction and 1.06 inches at Denver in this morning’s soundings. A closer look at the Grand Junction sounding shows most of the entire depth of the troposphere is nearly saturated. The national radar image this morning shows showers over the western and northern part of the state, indicating some large-scale lift from stronger winds aloft is driving the precipitation. Surface dew points<\/span> are in the 50Fs and low 60F across much of the state, with the 60Fs along the eastern plains and into the northern Urban Corridor. This low-level moisture is expected to largely remain in place today, which will provide the majority of the fuel for rainfall as clouds and early morning showers will likely cut down on strong surface heating for much of the western part of the state. This will limit the amount of instability over the mountains. Moderate southwesterly upper-level flow will cause storms and showers to track from southwest to northeast across the state today, which will limit the amount of time individual storms will be able to produce rain over an area. However, storms will track over the same locations throughout the day, increasing total 24-hour rain accumulation. As storms develop and track near the northeast corner of the state, heavy rainfall will be possible with the high low-level moisture present there.<\/p>\n Strong instability will not be able to build over much of the mountains today due to increased cloud cover and rain showers, especially over the northwestern corner of the state. However, over the far northeastern plains, higher instability is expected due to increased surface moisture as the lee trough<\/span> supports moist south-southeasterly winds over the area. This instability, combined with some increased wind shear<\/span>, could allow some severe thunderstorms<\/span> to develop over the Northeast Plains. There is also the possibility of storms training<\/span> in the area, so a Moderate flood threat has been issued. These severe storms could also produce gusty winds and hail.<\/p>\n
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