Thanks so much for joining us here
on 9 News Plus meteorologist Chris
Bianki checking in with another
weather factoid for your day today.
The big news that came out was that
the drought monitor is just in.
It showed some pretty substantial
improvements around the Front Range.
In particular,
we've seen throughout the summer and
gradual improvement in drought conditions,
and that's thanks to a lot of our
recent rainfall that we've had,
including what we had back
on Monday and Tuesday.
But just to maybe refresh your memory a
little bit on Monday we had that really
heavy rainfall across the South metro area.
Some spots, in fact quite a few spots picking
up more than two inches worth of rainfall.
That is a lot of water for
this part of the country.
Remember where we live here in Colorado
we average 1415 inches of rain a year,
so when you get 2 inches of rain,
even an inch of rain,
that is a notable rainfall
precipitation event for us here
in Colorado and again on Monday,
a lot of northern.
Douglas County,
as well as central Douglas County and
a pretty good chunk of Arapahoe County,
picked up at least 2 inches worth of
rainfall and then much wider area than that
saw at least one inch worth of rainfall.
So good soaking beneficial
rain back on Monday.
And then we followed that up on
Tuesday and specifically Tuesday
morning and our friends in Broomfield
certainly won't forget this.
Where in Broomfield we picked up
almost 4 inches worth of rainfall
in less than five hours.
Put that into context,
that is.
More than 1/4 of your typical annual
annual rainfall in about 5 hours
on Tuesday there in Broomfield.
Now that much rain was limited to really
a small part of the city of Broomfield.
But once again we saw some fairly
beneficial rainfall across a huge swath of
real estate across the Denver metro area.
And once all was said and done.
Most of the Denver area between Monday
and Tuesday picked up at least 2
inches worth of rainfall and about,
I should say about about 60% picked
up at least one inch of rainfall.
I should say 80% picked up at
least one inch of rainfall.
60% picked up at least 2
inches worth of rainfall,
so hopefully that makes sense.
Most of the metro area picked up at
least 2 inches worth of rainfall.
That is a ton of water, as I mentioned,
for our part of the state,
and I'll have more on how that impacted
our drought monitor here in just a second.
But once again,
back on Tuesday Broomfield picked
up 3.7 inches worth of rainfall.
That is more than double your typical
full month rainfall in the entire month
of August out there in Broomfield.
Now this was all mostly I should
say a result of the monsoon.
We also had a cold front working
through and just
as a bit of a refresher. A reminder.
This is how the monsoon works so we usually
this time of year and as is the case
right now have the jet stream off to our.
North, right what that does is it
allows a subtropical area of high
pressure to itself to draw moisture
from the Gulf of Mexico and a monsoon
low over the southwest to bring
up moisture from the Pacific.
So think of it as a bit
of a double edged sword.
We've got two moisture sources,
two big moisture sources,
the wide open Gulf of Mexico.
The wide Open Pacific Ocean and
all of that moisture because of
just general wind directions.
This time of year pumping up straight
into our part of the country,
and then you kind of.
Zip on in here on Colorado and that
moisture tends to impact areas,
particularly along and West of
the continental divide sometimes,
and this is what can happen,
like what we had a lot of July
here in the Denver area.
Sometimes you get that monsoonal moisture
it gets kind of trapped in the mountains,
and then,
as it tries to push its way into the
I-25 corridor, it down slopes and it dries,
and so sometimes you just end up
with those kind of paltry storms.
It looks really dark,
looks like it's about the storm,
and they just got a few of these
kind of rain.
Drops on your windshield.
Those kinds of storms.
But in terms of getting those kind
of big beneficial rain events,
you often don't really get that.
In the Denver area,
kinda needs something else to provide that,
but in the mountains,
that's where you often gets soaked
with those big monsoonal rain events.
Now the drought monitor this one
just into us here from the US drought
monitor and you can see that we've
seen a little bit of improvement.
And notice those blue areas.
Those are areas where we are now
considered to be without any
drought conditions.
We're about 10% of the state now
does not officially have drought
conditions and where we saw.
That improvement around the Denver
area noticed that severe drought that
kind of orangish color north and east Denver,
that was S and West of Denver as well.
That has now been removed,
and that's as a result of all
that recent rainfall.
All that recent beneficial rainfall
that we've been picking up now
going back to what I was just
talking about with the monsoon,
and how that tends to impact the
mountains more than the eastern plains.
Noticed NE Colorado with that red
and even some of that purple.
That is where, unfortunately.
About maybe increasing the Northeastern
5th of the state where I'm a little
bit concerned about what we've seen
over the last 40 to 50 days or so
going back to the beginning of July
where we've just been mostly shut
out from all that rainfall against,
but mostly impacting the mountains and
the immediate Front Range in metro area.
But then you get east of there and
we've been mostly shut out along
the Front Range now in terms of that
seven day forecast and what we have
to potentially look forward to,
well, we do have scattered showers
and storms here in the Denver area.
Yes, fairly widespread.
I don't think we're looking at
anything like what we had back
on Monday and Tuesday again,
but we could be dealing with more widespread
showers and storms in the mountains.
And it looks like at this point
that this weekend and especially
Saturday could be pretty busy.
On up into the higher terrain,
so if you're camping hiking this
weekend on up into the higher train,
just keep in mind we do have some fairly
widespread showers and storms and that
will of course benefit the drought.
But of course that could impact any
plans they might have this weekend.
And as always,
this is always the big take away
here folks is keep in mind where
those burn scars are just know that.
I'm just know where the burn scars are.
I would just say this I'm a big camper,
big outdoorsman myself.
If I'm going up into the mountains,
even you know, I'm a meteorologist.
I'm obviously.
Somebody who would probably be
know a bit more about this,
but every time I'm camping I check where it
is and also I check on a topographic map,
a map that has mountain features
to see if there's a Canyon that
could potentially shoot water down
from a burn scar. So just.
Point is,
just take a quick look at the
map and make sure it's not in
a burn scar or near burn scar.
You're gonna be OK.
Most areas here in Colorado are not
in or near Burnscar just avoid those
areas this weekend because we could.
We could be looking at some
fairly widespread rainfall and
the potential for more flooding.
But then again,
there's that flip side of things where
that's really good news for our drought,
and we're seeing some substantial
improvements on the drought.
So far, not only with this week's update,
but all summer long.
With all that monsoonal moisture
that we've been dealing with,
which has been again a real boom
for us here into the mountains,
in particular,
so hopefully that answers some
of your questions,
and really,
I think the big take away here
folks mentioned this back on
Tuesday on on next with Kyle Clark,
was that we've really seen some notable
rainfall events that are putting
more than a dent into our drought.
We're seeing some substantial improvement,
especially here around the Denver area,
and also on up into the mountains as well,
so again.
Mostly good news to pass along.
Once again,
a meteorologist,
Chris Bianchi,
chief meteorologist Kathy Savings
in at 4:00 and 5:00 with more
in your Colorado weather and
meteorologist Lauren Robinson,
will have updates at six,
nine and 10 on the 90s.
Family networks once again,
I mean draws Christiani and have
a great rest of your Thursday.