Fires to Flooding for Colorado, New Mexico

By Courtney Spamer, Meteorologist

July 17,2013; 7:21AM,EDT

 

 

 

 

After going from one extreme to the other, heavy rain could cause serious problems across the Southwest through the middle of the week.
This rain has been retrograding westward since the weekend, bringing the heavy rain and storms from Texas into the Four Corners area.
After high pressure dominated the weather pattern for the majority of June, some areas across New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado were left in an extreme drought. Although these areas could benefit from the rain, many will have too much in a short period of time to be of help.
Instead, flooding will take place.

The regions most at risk are higher terrain and areas recently burnt by wildfires.
Higher elevations are more likely to have these pop-up thunderstorms that will have the potential to dump 1-3 inches of rain in some places in just one day. But locally, some areas could get up to 5 inches in a day or two.
This amount of rain can flood streets and homes, overflowing creeks and streams.
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While slightly lower totals are likely at lower terrain, the dry weather for the first half of the summer will make certain regions more susceptible to flooding.
This includes areas that were affected by the Black Forest fire in June, one of the most destructive fires in Colorado history.
The dry soil will be unable to absorb the rain as it falls heavily and for longer periods of time. This will therefore lead to potentially dangerous flash flooding.
This is a huge change from the start of the summer. Heavy rain and moisture was pounding the eastern portion of the country in late June, with streams of moisture coming out of the Gulf of Mexico. Now, the eastern portion of the country is having the worst of summer's heat.