Friday's Monsoon Storms Dropped Nearly 25% Of The Annual Precip Between Erie And Broomfield
DENVER (CBS4) - Depending on where you live in the Denver metro area the average annual precipitation is anywhere from 14 to 16 inches on average. That total includes both rain and melted snow.
A deluge of heavy rain hit parts of the northern Denver metro area on Friday night as monsoon storms moved through the area. A few CoCoRaHS rain gauges between Broomfield and Erie saw roughly a quarter of their annual precipitation within just a matter of hours.
One CoCoRaHS rain gauge located just southeast of Erie measured 3.67 inches of rain from the storm. Another gauge to the northeast of Broomfield recorded 3.56 inches of rain. The National Weather Service placed the area under a Flash Flood Warning but no major problems were reported.
Contrast that heavy rain total southeast of Erie with another rain gauge located just a few miles to the northwest. The owner of that gauge tweeting she only received 0.40 inches of rain from the same slow-moving storm.
It is such a great example of how invaluable weather observers are to the field of Meteorology. CoCoRaHS is a Colorado based network of volunteer weather observers that report rain, hail and snow after each storm.
They also report zero on dry days to help document drought. Their information maps out the footprint left from passing storms. Each footprint tells a tremendous and unique weather story. You can learn more about being a CoCoRaHS observer by clicking here.
