Varied Precipitation Reports

Some residents along the Front Range of Colorado awoke to small hail and heavy rain Monday morning. Where I live in the SE Denver metro area, it was overcast with peaks of sunshine while others were getting rain.

That is the beauty of CoCoRaHS.

In the Denver metro area, there are only 4 official automated points of weather data. But CoCoRaHS allows us to see precipitation details in between those 4 stations. A morning thundershower or thunderstorm is quite special in a dry climate like Colorado because usually we need daytime heating to cause enough instability for a storm.

I can recall growing up in Arkansas running to the bus stop on many mornings, dodging the lightning and rain and sometimes hail.

For those not in Colorado, we are known for our rapidly changing weather conditions, especially in the mountains.

This morning, rain rapidly changed to snow along with driving winds between Idaho Springs, Aspen and Vail -- closing portions of Interstate 70 over the Continental Divide and causing some accidents outside of the Eisenhower Tunnel.

For both residents and visitors, it is time to dig out the winter survival kits to keep in the trunk of your car because you just never know what you may run into over the higher passes. Other colder climates will need to do this in the coming weeks too. (like Wisconsin, Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana for example)

The wettest location in the CoCoRaHS network on Sunday was Bennett County, South Dakota. Two different stations each had nearly 2.00 inches of rain. Check it out on the maps by clicking here. Then select South Dakota in the state pull-down menu and Bennett County in the Cities/Counties list.


Observer WY-NT-22 says it is feeling like fall in his or her Monday comment.
AMEN to that!!