Greeley Flash Flood: Thursday Storm Dropped Over 100 Million Gallons Of Water Along 4th Street
DENVER (CBS4) - The cleanup continues in parts of Greeley Friday after a slow-moving thunderstorm full of monsoon moisture unleashed a torrent of rain early Thursday afternoon.
The result was a flash flood that overwhelmed storm drains and caused a significant amount of damage in the area.
CoCoRaHS weather observers living west of downtown Greeley along 4th Street, between 14th Avenue and 49th Avenue, were in the heart of the storm cell. In roughly 60 minutes rain gauges there recorded between 2.50 and 3.50 inches of rain.
To get an idea of just how much water fell we can do some rough calculations to come up with an approximate number of gallons using information from the USGS. For this estimate I focused on an area covering about two square miles along 4th Street where five different rain gauges showed an average rainfall of roughly 3 inches.
The math shows that more than 100,000,000 gallons of water fell in that 2 square mile area.
But we know the total water over Greeley was actually a lot higher because the entire city saw moderate to heavy rain.
My estimate only focuses on a two square mile area parallel to 4th Street, between 14th Avenue and 49th Avenue.