DENVER -- August 6, 2008 It's official, the new record that will go down in the books for consecutive days above 90 degrees is 24 days. The high today has only warmed to 85 degrees so far and doesn't look like it will warm much more. We have strong storms moving into the Denver Metro area. A flash flood watch has been issued for portions of Western and Central Colorado including the Denver Metro area. There is also flash flood warnings for several counties in Southwestern Colorado. The reason for all of these watches and warnings spawn from the slow moving storm cells. These storms are moving extemely slow dropping between 2-3 inches of rain in a matter of only a couple of hours. Localized flooding is the story of the day, which has been a nice break from the dry hot conditions Denver has been experiencing over the past couple of weeks.

We get our official rainfall totals from a website called CoCoRaHS. CoCoRaHS stands for Communtiy Collaborative Rain, Hail, & Snow Network. If you want to become one of the thousands of weather watchers that log data into the website, it's extremely easy and fun! Once registered at http://www.cocorahs.org, you will receive an official rain gauge in the mail. Everyday, log onto the website and log how much rain has fallen into the rain gauge at your house. We then take this information and use it for climatological data and sometimes include it in our newscasts!

Remember with heavy rain, never drive over flooded roads since it is unknown how deep the water is. Severe storms are likely to continue popping up this afternoon clearing out by late evening. This is all thanks to that cold front that moved into the state yesterday and has since become stationary. The wet weather has helped only a small amount since Colorado is still well below average for summer precipitation.

August 5, 2008 Today marked our 24th day in a row where temperatures remained at or above 90 degrees. Today at 2:43 PM DIA recorded a high temerature of 91 degrees. So far 2008 Denver has seen 41 ninety degree days and the record to beat is 61 days which was set in 2000. Today Denver will see the streak come to an end with highs cooling into the 80s. The 80s will continue for the next few days before we head into the weekend where temperatures soar back into the 90s.

This cooler and much more bearable weather is due to a cold front that finally managed to make its way across the Colorado state late Monday night into Tuesday morning. For the past few weeks the cold fronts coming off the pacific coast have just passed us to the north leaving the north cool and wet, while we have been trapped under a huge ridge of high pressure keeping us hot with renlentless ninety degree weather. That ridge of high pressure has kept us dry and hot with little instablility within the atmosphere, giving us little hope for storms and showers throughout the metro area. With this cold front, our area will see more moisture and more instablility leaving us with a much better chance for storms and showers through the end of the week.

This cold front will stall up against the mountains through the middle of the week, cooling off eastern Colorado, but leaving the western valleys still hot and dry. This front will be the boundary where showers and thunderstorms will develop and move east. Some of these storms that develop could bring locally heavy rain, increasing the risk of localized flash flooding. These storms over the next few days could also bring gusty damaging winds, frequent lightning increasing our fire danger, and large hail. However, we need the rain because Denver is well below rain fall for 2008. The total 2008 precipitation is only 3.28 inches which is 2.06 inches below the driest year in Denver's history, which was 2002 at 5.34 inches. For more information on precipitation amounts around the state visit cocorahs.org. Denver is techniquely not considered to be in a drought but we all still need to do our part to conserve water in our ever growing city.

August 3, 2008 Another day, another record with temperatures in the high 90s. Sunday marked our 22nd day in a row that temperatures were at or above 90 degrees. So far 2008 has 39 ninety degree days and the record is 61 days set in 2000. The month of August has on average 9 days of 90 degree heat while September has 2, so the heat could manage to reach that record level if we continue to have this weather pattern stick to us for a while. The strong of super heated weather will come to at least a temporary end this week as a cold front will move through the state by Tuesday morning. Highs will be around 85 with a better chance for afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

This cold front will stall up against the mountains through the middle of the week, which will cool off eastern Colorado, but leave the western valleys pretty hot. This front will be the boundary which showers and thunderstorms will develop on and move east. Some of these storms could bring locally heavy rain, so watch out for the risk of localized flash flooding. However, we need the rain because Denver is well below rain fall for 2008. The total 2008 precipitation is only 3.28 inches which is 2.06 inches below the driest year in Denver's history, which was 2002 at 5.34 inches. Some areas around the state might have locally heavior amounts. For more information on precipitation amounts around the state visit cocorahs.org. Denver is techniquely not in a drought but we all still need to do our part to conserve water in our ever growing city.

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