Colorado awoke to mainly clear skies this morning. However, as shown in the water vapor image, below, the atmosphere today remains in a rather confused state with pockets of higher moisture intertwined with drier air. Precipitable Water<\/span> (PW<\/span>) at Denver this morning was 0.74 inches, down from yesterday’s 0.92 inches. However, PW<\/span> at North Platte (NE) and Dodge City (KS) were over 1.30 inches, signifying a strong moisture gradient over eastern Colorado. Grand Junction’s morning PW<\/span> was 0.67 inches, up slightly from yesterday, but with a moisture profile not conducive for much, if any, rainfall. The PW<\/span> in Albuquerque was an impressive 1.15 inches, and up to 1 inch of PW<\/span> is estimated over far southwest Colorado. This appears to be the area to watch<\/span> for flooding potential today.<\/p>\n In the mid-levels, a strengthening upper-level ridge, currently centered over Utah will support a generally clockwise flow of air around its eastern fringe. Little to no forcing features are easily discernable, making for a challenging forecast. An ongoing storm complex over western Nebraska was being fueled by elevated convection<\/span> and is expected to dissipate later this morning. However, it could send an outflow boundary<\/span> south along the KS border and spark an isolated<\/span> to widely scattered<\/span> severe storm. Flooding looks unlikely with this situation as steering winds will be strengthening through the day and exceed 25 mph by afternoon. With adequate instability and strong wind shear<\/span>, however, large hail and damaging winds will be possible with any storms that form.<\/p>\n Over most of the higher terrain, moisture is not overly impressive this morning, but scattered<\/span> showers and thunderstorms are still expected this afternoon. The vast majority of the activity should be benign with only short-term moderate intensity rainfall possible. Over the San Juans, however, a bit more moisture with slower steering flow does support storms capable of 30-60 minute duration heavy rainfall. A LOW flood threat has been posted for this limited area for today.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive-coftb.dewberryanalytics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/wv_markup-2.png\")
<\/p>\nToday’s Flood Threat Map<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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