Mountain West Discussion

[Chinook]

some stormy conditions (again)

 

 

[Chinook]

hail/street floods reported in Parker

[mayjawintastawm]

Just got 0.42" rain in 16 minutes with rates peaking at 2.5"/hr. All done though. Parts of Parker got hammered. Saw some broad rotation in the cloud base on my way home from work in Aurora.

EDIT: round 2 developing from outflow. Quite an interesting afternoon, all of a sudden!

[smokeybandit]

0.4" so far, still more coming though we'll see if it stays far enough south to get me to a half inch.

That puts me over 3" for the month. Best month in a long time

[frontranger8]

Just got nailed by a storm, almost half an inch. Up to 2.6" on the month.

[frontranger8]

On 7/27/2026 at 10:21 PM, frontranger8 said:

That being said, there have been many times where August has been much wetter than July (2022 is the only real recent example, but quite a few further back). We are badly due for a very wet August for the region...the last one was 2008.

I am a prophet.

[Chinook]

what are these wet things coming from the sky?

[GaWx]

 Early afternoon in Vail I saw the strongest thunderstorm of my CO trip. It got so dark just before the start! I considered it to be severe with very strong winds at the start bringing down cold air into the 50s. The winds must have been 50++, which the aspens handled well. Soon after good drought helping heavy rain fell followed by lots of pea sized hail that lasted ~5 minutes. As a result of 3 periods of rain, it was in the 50s most of the afternoon! Sure beats GA summer heat and humidity!

It’s down to 48 with rain and wind. Feels like what typical winter day would be in Savannah! This is why I like coming here in summer.

[LoboLeader1]

 Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — known as "Tornado Alley". Is this alley shifting east?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/illinois-sets-us-state-record-for-most-tornadoes-in-a-year/1927594

[mayjawintastawm]

14 hours ago, GaWx said:

 Early afternoon in Vail I saw the strongest thunderstorm of my CO trip. It got so dark just before the start! I considered it to be severe with very strong winds at the start bringing down cold air into the 50s. The winds must have been 50++, which the aspens handled well. Soon after good drought helping heavy rain fell followed by lots of pea sized hail that lasted ~5 minutes. As a result of 3 periods of rain, it was in the 50s most of the afternoon! Sure beats GA summer heat and humidity!

It’s down to 48 with rain and wind. Feels like what typical winter day would be in Savannah! This is why I like coming here in summer.

That's pretty typical for the mountains during monsoon season. Some years you can set your watch by them, right after lunch. I've been caught in more than one on my bike, grateful for the helmet.  One good thing is that the mountains very rarely have severe-size (1") hail.

[ValpoVike]

15 hours ago, GaWx said:

 Early afternoon in Vail I saw the strongest thunderstorm of my CO trip. It got so dark just before the start! I considered it to be severe with very strong winds at the start bringing down cold air into the 50s. The winds must have been 50++, which the aspens handled well. Soon after good drought helping heavy rain fell followed by lots of pea sized hail that lasted ~5 minutes. As a result of 3 periods of rain, it was in the 50s most of the afternoon! Sure beats GA summer heat and humidity!

It’s down to 48 with rain and wind. Feels like what typical winter day would be in Savannah! This is why I like coming here in summer.

Yesterday I took a trip up in RMNP to the Alpine visitor center at the top of Trail Ridge Road.  I took the "back way" via the Old Fall River Road route, and it rained nearly the entire way.  Once at the top, the temps plunged to the mid-30's with sleet and snow showers.  When I made it back down to Estes Park, it was around 70 and sunny.  I love this time of year  .

[smokeybandit]

5 hours ago, LoboLeader1 said:

 Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — known as "Tornado Alley". Is this alley shifting east?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/severe-weather/illinois-sets-us-state-record-for-most-tornadoes-in-a-year/1927594

What are "preliminary reports?" Do they mean just radar warned tornadoes? Or are those actual confirmed tornadoes?

[mayjawintastawm]

2 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

What are "preliminary reports?" Do they mean just radar warned tornadoes? Or are those actual confirmed tornadoes?

They are tornadoes that get reported to NWS by spotters/law enforcement/etc but may not have been confirmed by NWS. Some are duplicates (I think), some turn out to be non-tornadic wind events.

[GaWx]

3 hours ago, mayjawintastawm said:

That's pretty typical for the mountains during monsoon season. Some years you can set your watch by them, right after lunch. I've been caught in more than one on my bike, grateful for the helmet.  One good thing is that the mountains very rarely have severe-size (1") hail.

 I went to Maroon Bells via Aspen on Saturday, where I got caught in a light rain shower. That was one amazing place with some of the best views I’ve ever seen! I took 80 mainly pics with a few videos. If you haven’t been, I very strongly recommend it. Has anyone here gone there?
 
 I started the day driving to Aspen that morning. I first took a free city bus from Aspen to the Aspen Highlands ski resort. Then I took a reserved shuttle from there to Maroon Bells. I arrived just before 11:30AM and got to the lake at 11:45. I figured that would still be early enough to miss the rain per what the Euro/GFS/UK/Icon/RRFS/NAM showed. They all suggested it wouldn’t rain til at least 2PM and more likely not til  3PM. But sure enough, it rapidly clouded up and it started raining at just after 1PM. Is it common for the models to be too late on the start of monsoon activity each day?
 

 Fortunately though, it remained light and there was no lightning. Luckily, the rain ended ~1:30. It never rained enough to make the trail slippery or muddy. As I was leaving ~2:30, it just started raining lightly again.

@ValpoVike

 

[ValpoVike]

I take model timing details with a grain of salt for mountain locations.

[smokeybandit]

3 hours ago, mayjawintastawm said:

They are tornadoes that get reported to NWS by spotters/law enforcement/etc but may not have been confirmed by NWS. Some are duplicates (I think), some turn out to be non-tornadic wind events.

So calling it a state record is kind of premature.