Marty’s Sunday Morning Forecast – Cooler, More Storms – 7/21/19
Overview: The plume of moisture associated with the summer monsoon is mainly off to our southwest and it doesn’t appear the monsoon flow will settle back across the area until a little later next week, but the shallow layer of cooler, moister air that arrived over the plains of eastern Colorado yesterday will continue to support thunderstorms over eastern Colorado today. A Flash Flood Watch has been issued for the various burn scars on the higher terrain to the southwest of Pueblo for today due to expected heavy rain produced by afternoon and evening thunderstorms.
Today: We’ll be partly cloudy and noticeably cooler with temperatures in the 80s for the plains, 70s for the mountains. The air will again be a bit humid over the plains, at least by Colorado standards, but that humidity will help fuel more thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours. Like Saturday the stronger storms will typically have the potential to produce localized downpours of heavy rain, frequent lightning, small hail and gusty wind, and the strongest cells might briefly produce hail to near an inch in diameter and wind gusts to near 60 mph . Storms will continue to be most numerous over and near the mountains but some storms will drift over the plains as well late this afternoon or this evening into tonight.
Tonight: A fairly organized area of thunderstorms looks to drop south along the southern I-25 corridor this evening where heavy rain will potentially interact with local burn scars in the vicinity of the Wet and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Thunderstorms will gradually wind down late with a partly cloudy sky expected by morning. We expect low temperatures to fall into the 50s and 60s for most areas, although where the air is drier over the high mountain valleys and higher mountain communities the temperature may slip into the 40s again.
Extended: Monday looks to remain pretty cool compared to where we’ve been recently with high temperatures mainly in the 70s and 80s . Thunderstorms will remain possible on Monday, but should be less numerous as compared to the weekend and confined to areas on and near the mountains. As we move through the work week the low level moisture associated with the cold front will begin to thin out with Tuesday looking to be the driest day. The air should warm some as the work week progresses, but with moisture associated with the summer monsoon probably beginning to return to the area in some capacity scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop over and near the mountains most days which should keep the air from getting as hot as it did late last week. After Monday we expect high temperatures to reach the 80s and 90s for the plains with 70s to near 80 over the mountains.
