Marty’s Saturday Morning Forecast – Scattered Storms – 7/21/18

Today: We’ll be partly cloudy and warming quickly this morning. We won’t have much wind today, but chances for rain look a little better across the area with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing over and near the mountains as well as over the plains mainly along and north of the Arkansas River this afternoon. Severe weather doesn’t look very likely today, but stronger storms might be capable of producing localized downpours, strong wind gusts, small hail and frequent lightning. Temperatures this afternoon may be just slightly cooler than yesterday, but we still expect to warm into the 80s and 90s along the I-25 corridor, mid to upper 90s for the eastern plains, and 70s and 80s over our local mountain communities.

Tonight: Scattered showers and thunderstorms will decrease this evening, then partly cloudy tonight. We expect to cool into the 60s for the plains by morning, mainly 50s over the mountains.

Extended: It appears as though our chances for rain will continue to increase over the next couple days, and while storms will remain scattered in nature, stronger storms capable of producing bursts of heavy rain appear more likely to develop at times Sunday and Monday. If heavy rain interacts with the burn scars then localized areas of flash flooding could occur, but elsewhere we expect that most storms will remain below severe criteria bringing some much needed rain, and cooler air to the area. Monday in particular looks to be noticeably cooler with high temperatures in the 70s and 80s for most areas. Thunderstorms may decrease in coverage through the middle of next week, but with moisture associated with the summer monsoon beginning to establish itself over the area we still expect spotty storms to develop each afternoon, especially over and near the mountains. Another cold front may reach the area late Friday, and if so we would likely notice the thunderstorms increase in both coverage and intensity again as we head towards next weekend.