mayjawintastawm

3 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

There's a flash flood warning 5 miles to my west.  Yet I picked up a measly 0.17"

Just something about my microclimate I guess that these high precip events affect all areas around me but not me.

I do think it's mostly chance, and hearing about the high precipitation events makes people think everyone is getting in on the action. Your area tends to do fairly well in northerly-flow snowstorms from the subtle upslope- I work with a couple people from that area and they tend to come in late for work on those days in the late winter/spring. Most areas east of I-25 have been generally quite dry the last several months- hence the big W-E gradient on the drought monitor.

Related, I'd love to see a high-resolution map of average annual precipitation in eastern CO- I'd guess the nadir is about 50 miles east of Denver due to combined rain shadowing and less upslope.

On 8/10/2022 at 8:27 PM, Chinook said:

I have moved. I will keep posting sometimes. I've seen quite a bit of rain and some reasonable lightning/thunder in Ohio since I've been back. Funny thing. When the dew point is 75 and you are at sea level, your nose doesn't dry out. I keep looking for the 00z NAM data to be available at 8:00PM, but it's not done by 8:00PM Eastern time!

since I left, Loveland got 1.26" of precipitation and Fort Collins got 2.98" of precipitation (I picked a couple of CoCoRAHS stations) 

 

Dang. Who's going to be the authoritative poster in the subforum then?

Good luck and enjoy! Where in OH?

And yes, when I take trips east I enjoy my normal-feeling nose...

Got 2.06" here, the most in one day (or in 3 hours!) since I got the weather station, and 22% of our yearly precipitation to date. No flooding in our yard or basement

2 hours ago, ValpoVike said:

It has been the second weird summer monsoon in a row....where up here we are hoping for only light rain, showers or storms have been coming several times a week, and the grasses are still green.  While elsewhere outside of certain spots in the foothills could use as much rain as possible.  The exact same thing happened last year.

yes- seems like the recurring theme is for almost all showers to lose support once they drift onto the plains because of dry air/ground, and the 2-3 times where the air has been moist (especially the last 2 weekends), morning clouds have limited instability just long enough to keep convection from sustaining itself on a widespread basis once storms come off the foothills. Maybe we'll have one more shot next week before the monsoon shuts off for the year.

12 hours ago, ValpoVike said:

Yes, thankfully.  Up here we had a nice hour or two of light showers which had no impact on the burn scars.

COCORaHS showed widespread underwhelmingness with a few heavier spots, like the new I-70 underpass.... we got 0.08" and the yard is crispy despite regular watering. I'm afraid our chances for more before the long dry fall are getting slimmer.

Interesting- the thunderstorms last night that dropped about a quarter inch of rain on us served to suppress basically all the rain for the Urban Corridor today. Was supposed to be quite juicy, but no sun=no lift.

3 hours ago, Chinook said:

This may have fulfilled the tornado report quota for one storm

We have friends who live just east of where that storm was on US 385. More than one funnel cloud was heading in their direction before disappearing back up into the clouds.

And DEN is now in the #1 spot for warmest July and warmest month if this holds.... and the average high this month is now 95. Wow. It may not hold, with some relief predicted for later next week. That is one record I would be fine with not breaking.

Looking at climate numbers, we're #2 for hottest month ever at DIA so far this month. With predicted numbers the rest of this week and early next, we could be closing in on #1 by the end of the month. 78.3 at DIA average so far, record is 78.9 in 2012.

100 7/9 and 101 7/10 at DIA, 102 both days at my house. Yuck. Puppy loves her swimming pool.

Definitely haves and have nots in June, with many mountain and SW areas of CO getting more than the rest, for a change. Good for them. I got soaked and hailed on during a mountain training ride yesterday, while home was just cloudy, cool and dry. Total June precipitation at my house=0.34 inches, all on June 1.

Today was about as perfect as a weather day could get, other than a total lack of excitement.

102 at my house about an hour ago, hottest since I got my weather station about 2 years ago. 2 other PWSs in our neighborhood were also 102. AC can't even come close to keeping up. Yuck.

The last few years, we often seem to have skipped the normal transition in June with crazy hail storms, going directly to the hottest days of the summer June 10-30. Not nearly as much hail the past 2-3 years. Of the 21 daily high temp records at DEN from June 10-30, 13 have occurred since 2012, with 11 of those being 100+.  Six were in the insane June of 2012.

Late entry: we got about 6" from the snow event and lost much of a 40 year old ash tree in our front yard along with power loss for 27 hours. Yuck. Over the last 6 days we've had just about another inch of rain. Total melted precipitation in May was almost 3 inches! I've been traveling 10 of the last 12 days so didn't see much of it.

Updated list, and people can put predictions, snow totals and number of branches down when all is said and done:

ValpoVike: 7310'

Smokeybandit: 6300'

Skierinvermont 5700'

Mayjawintastawm: 5650' guessing 5.8" (will depend on my kids measuring, so likely inaccurate) 

N1vek: 5500'

Chinook: 5110'

CoScifan: 5105'

The thing that really, REALLY makes this weird is what a dramatic change this is. It's one thing if it's the tail end of a snowy, cold season. But I think this is only about Denver's third Winter Storm Warning of the whole season; we've had more fires than we have winter storms this year; the last measurable snow at KDEN was MARCH 16th; and May is averaging +3 to +4 F compared to climatology around the area. Just completely incongruous.

Elevation list of frequent posters in this subforum (feel free to insert yours) from highest to lowest: guessing on order for many based on city. I don't think we have any in the "real" mountains over 9000 feet.

ValpoVike: 7310'

Smokeybandit: 6300'

Mayjawintastawm: 5650'

N1vek:

Co Scifan:

Chinook:

Raindancewx (Albuquerque):

52 minutes ago, n1vek said:

Winter Storm Watch for the urban corridor/foothills signaling 4-10". I'd imagine it will be very elevation dependant. 

I want all of the moisture and none of the limb-breaking snow please. 

Yes. My lilacs here at 5650' have broken from snow during full bloom several times, but not in 3 years (and the bloom is almost over for this year!) And I will be away this weekend and my kids won't measure, so just as soon have the whole thing be rain.

Yes, at this point it looks kind of like there will be a sharp elevation line below which will get an inch or so of slush and above which might get a ton of wet snow. Will it be 6000'? Will it be 7000'? We're on the edge of our seats! Tune in Friday! 

I dunno but the Fri-Sat forecast is getting even juicier. I think this time of year, handling convection throws the models off a lot.

Here goes... point forecast for me for Fri-Sat has 0.85" QPF with 0.9" snow. We shall see how it dwindles, or doesn't. Would be great. Of course I'm flying out Fri PM so would miss the snow, but at this point a few tenths of slush doesn't excite me. Have to bring the container veggies in.

The eclipse was spectacular! Perhaps the darkest lunar eclipse I've seen. All my pictures are black though...

Yikes. Hope some combination of lighter winds, rain and miracles happens. Best wishes to you and family aggiegeog.

0.94" at our house since Sunday, most of it Sunday night. A nice respite even if brief.

That is one large left field!

April at Centennial (closest climate site to me) had 0.01" precip, lowest on record and if Denver had not had a brief thunderstorm a couple days ago it would have been lowest on record too. My house had 0.02", and 0 snow. I wonder where they keep records for windiest months.

Yesterday they were predicting 0.4" QPF at my house for tonight and Monday, today 0.2". I'll celebrate if it's more than 0.05". I think I won't plan any new in-ground vegetation this year.

EDIT Monday 7 AM: Now THAT was a nice surprise!! Good round of thunderstorms and 0.74" rain. Better yet is that this was pretty widespread over the area. Need more surprises like that.