Steve,

I'm 25 miles north of Denver. We had a heck of a light show and a good rain. The rain barrel off the north side of the house was 3/4 full before the storm and is full this morning. The worst of the storm dumped 4 to 5 inches of rain and hail to the south of us. Greg looked to be more in the midst of it.

Looks like monsoon may be starting. The rain was welcome after the 100 degrees we saw yesterday.

Barb

Lots of rain and lightning here. Thankfully no significant hail. I have arborists working on my trees today and they said Arvada got hit pretty bad by hail.

Got some small hail not damaging here on the SW side of town. The wind was what got me, knocked everything over. I think I'm going to start staking my onions from now on.

I like ..

. steak with onions.

Seems a lightening-lit, unplanned bbq could have been an outcome but you certainly got a dousing rain. I realize that it often takes a day or two before a fire may be known.

Best of Continuing Luck!

Steve
94of here today, no rain in sight

I live in Eastern Arvada. According to the weather radar, we were right in the middle of the worst part. So I ran outside and moved a bunch of my plants under the table and benches on my deck. However, all I got was a lot of lightning and a small bit of rain. I guess I should consider myself lucky.

Checking with RMG folks about the weather down here will definitely be more informative than anything you'll find on THAT channel, Digit! In my opinion, the weather channel is all but useless if you're looking for anything west of the Mississippi! It used to be the only way I had to try to get weather info on a layover when I was still flying, and I finally just gave up and stopped watching it after I came to the conclusion that the only weather that was important to them occurred on the east coast!

I'm just a little way south of Barb, and, like her, I had quite the light show here! Lightening and thunder are the ONLY things I miss from growing up in Illinois, so it was fun to watch! I was watching radar much of the time, and the first batch of storms--the ones that hit parts of Arvada badly--moved straight down the west side of I-25, which is about two miles west of me. Didn't even get more than a little very light rain here with those storms! Then it looked like it cleared out and I was thinking it was gone for the evening, but around midnite another whole batch moved thru with less lightening, but with some actual RAIN! The wind seemed to be blowing from all four directions, so I had to close ALL of the windows and it got pretty stuffy in the house, but I DID get 4/10" of rain! Hallelujah!!! Amazing how GREEN everything looks after a decent rain! No hail, and very windy, but nothing extreme!

This has nothing to do with yesterday's weather, but I've been researching info about reforesting burn areas in the far southwest corner of the state and I've found some info I didn't know before, and I thought it was interesting---and Digit doesn't usually mind if you "change the subject!"

I discovered that the monsoon Barb mentioned is called the North American Monsoon, or, alternately, the Arizona Monsoon! We always talk about monsoons, but I never knew it was a real live Official Thing--with a NAME! It normally starts right around now--if it's gonna start at all in any particular year!--and should be winding down by the end of August and "gone with the wind" by the end of September. It looks like it's ramping up to be pretty good this year--good news for David and all the other folks down in the Cortez area, which is still considered to be in a severe drought. The map below is the July/August/September precip outlook for the US, and it really is lookin' good for western Colorado! Looks like somebody's prayers to the Rain Gods have been answered!

And something else I found that I never would have believed if I hadn't found it on both NOAA and the USGS! The average annual rainfall on the mesa tops at Mesa Verde is just over EIGHTEEN inches a year! Whoda thunk! I'm sure that's been way down with the recent drought years, but even in a "normal" year I never would have guessed that!

And something else--which has NOTHING to do with weather! Mesa Verde isn't really Mesa Verde! It's Cuesta Verde! The "mesas" at Mesa Verde--not just the National Park, but the whole "area" of "mesas" which go all the way down to the New Mexico border, of which the Natl. Park is only a small part--is not a "mesa." A mesa is an "isolated flat-top hill with steep sides! "Mesa Verde" is flat on top and has "steep sides" on the north side, but from the high point on the north side it slopes down gently to the south--the "mesas" just south of the Natl. Park are 300-500' lower than the main ruins at Mesa Verde! And that's what a cuesta [kwes-ta] is! So now I know that since the mid 60s I've actually been going to Cuesta Verde, and not Mesa Verde! Ok! Maybe nobody else thinks that's interesting--but I thought it was! And, hopefully, if the predicted rain happens it'll all start to become greener again--or would that be more verde-nt, and the baby trees in the burn areas will start to get going better again and have an easier life!

I'll go away now,
Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:126431}}

Mesa Verde is 1,000 - 1,500 feet higher than the valley, and gets more rain - lower down its more like 14". The same with the western edges of the valley, on the way to Monticello, its high enough that they get just enough rain to (usually) plant rain-dependent crops.

They just declared the county a drought disaster area or something, qualifying the farmers for low-interest loans.

Anyway, today the forecast is 50% chance of heavy rain, and flash flood watch is up.

/and I'll go wash my car, just to be sure.

We got about 1/2 inch of rain on Monday night, and no hail, thank goodness. Nice and cool (if you can call 81 cool) in comparison to Monday, which was so hot I had to give the chickens a dunk in some cool water to cool them off. It's on its way to hot again today... Hopefully the ice I gave them before I left for work will keep them from overheating before I get home and can give them more cool water! I welcomed the clouds yesterday, but we didn't get anything out of it at our house.

We didn't get anything in Erie from the storm that hit Arvada so hard. We got nailed later, at almost midnight, with tremendous wind and rain and lightning, but no hail thankfully! The yards and flowers and veggies LOVED it, though. They proved it yesterday!