Heavy rain enhances flooding concerns today

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - We saw some scattered showers around the Western Slope yesterday, but rainfall amounts were fairly small with Grand Junction and Montrose both receiving less than a tenth of an inch of rain. We dried out through the overnight hours, and the opening half of the morning has been dry as well with mostly cloudy skies. The front edge of the next round of rain is already marching through the southwestern portions of the region through the middle of the morning, and it will continue to spread northeastward through the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. Just about everyone around the Western Slope will see some rain today, and the primary concern for many today will be the threat for heavy rain. The Weather Prediction Center has placed just about all of the region under a moderate risk for excessive rainfall, meaning that chances of heavy rain and localized flooding is greater than normal today. Not everyone will see heavy rain, and not everyone will see localized flooding, but a higher than normal threat for those things are in place across all of the region today. A Flood Watch also remains in effect for the Western Slope, particularly along and south of Interstate 70 down to the New Mexico border until midnight Thursday night and Friday morning. Clouds and rain this afternoon will have temperatures struggling to reach the middle and upper 60s later this afternoon. Scattered showers with continued chances for heavy rain continues into the overnight hours and into Thursday morning as well. Lows tonight will once again fall into the middle 50s.

Scattered showers with some heavy rain will continue to fall across the region on Thursday morning, but we should start to trend drier as the day progresses. The best rain chances for places like Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose, Nucla, and Moab will likely be in the morning, then drier air will push those showers off into the southeastern portions of the region by Thursday afternoon. Once the rain ends, we’ll see partly to mostly cloudy skies building into the region. That little bit of sunshine into the afternoon could warm temperatures into the lower and middle 70s. Skies will continue to clear out Thursday night with lows in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Combined rainfall totals from Tuesday to the end of the day on Thursday will likely be between 0.50 and 1.50 inches for many locations around the Western Slope, with some higher amounts of close to or over 2.00 inches possible in the far southern portions of the region including Cortez and Durango.

Mostly sunny to sunny skies settle back into the region on Friday, and things are setting up perfectly for a beautiful weekend around the Western Slope. We’ll see plenty of sunshine, a few afternoon clouds in a couple of locations, and high temperatures warming into the middle and upper 70s. We’ll turn a little bit warmer still into the start of the new work week with continued sunny skies and highs in the upper 70s and lower 80s.

Meteorologist Zack Webster

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