Boulder Flooding

[Sara Ganetis]

Combine very large precipitable water values (PWAT > 32 inches) and steady upslope flow and that spells disaster for Boulder, CO.

Over 10 inches of rain fell near Boulder today (12 September 2013). The mean annual precipitation received at Boulder is 19.93 inches and the largest monthly total value is 9.59 inches. (Source 1 NCDC, Source 2 ESRL). Creeks and streams are flooding causing most routes to be impassable.

The news is all over this story...
NPR Story: 'Massive Flooding' in Colorado's Boulder County
The Weather Channel Coverage

How was the predictability of this by global and regional models? How about the high-resolution mesoscale models? Just to take a look at the HRRR 1200 UTC 12 September run, the 15-h accumulated precipitation near Boulder was less than half of what was observed. I hope everyone at NCAR is alright!

[Derek Mallia]

This has been quite the event. This event apparently has knocked out the western radar comms leaving most of us in the dark convectively speaking. I've resorted to using either airport RADAR (extremely bad beam blockage though) or satellite images. Neither are particularly good options. Probably going to put off my bike ride today as its pretty dark put here...



Here is the most recent update from the NWS (which applies to SLC, BOISE, GRAND JUNCTION, BOULDER, POCATELLO,  ALBUQUERQUE)

TO ALL USERS OF SOUTHEAST IDAHO WEATHER RADAR DATA...THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMP
ANY THAT MAINTAINS THE COMMUNICATIONS LINK FOR RADAR DATA HAS STATED THAT THE MA
IN COMMUNICATIONS LINE IS DOWN DUE TO FLOODING OCCURRING IN COLORADO. WHILE SEVE
RAL FIXES HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTED...RADAR INFORMATION WILL MOST LIKELY BE UNAVAILABL
E UNTIL FLOOD WATERS RECEDE. CONTINUED ATTEMPTS TO RE-CONNECT MAY GENERATE RADAR
DATA INTERMITTENTLY OR TEMPORARILY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

[Derek Mallia]

A neat satellite image of the aftermath of the Boulder flooding:


I guess that water has to go somewhere....

[Alicia Bentley]

Hi guys!

I'm sorry that I couldn't post about UAlbany's Friday Map Discussion two weeks ago! We discussed the recent flooding in Colorado, the origins of the anomalous precipitable water values present over the region, and the tropospheric patterns associated with this event and past devastating flooding events.

Here is the master link that we put together. This link has a lot of information/resources that would be great for anyone doing a case study on this event.

www.atmos.albany.edu/student/abentley/mapdisco/20130920/

-Alicia