Flash Flood — Custer, Colorado

2019-08-08 · near Wetmore, Custer, Colorado

Event narrative

Trained spotter reported heavy rain producing minor street flooding and also causing rock slides across us hwy 96.

Wider weather episode

During the afternoon and evening hours of August 8, 2019, ample monsoonal flow pushed into the high terrain of the Rampart Range and the Wet Mountains. Rather slow moving heavy rain storms developed and eventually pushed off towards the east across the Front Range and eventually onto the eastern Colorado plains.

Heavy rain, large hail, damaging winds, flash flooding, and even a tornado were all reported during the afternoon and evening hours.

The most impressive storm ended up being a supercell thunderstorm that developed just northwest of the US Air Force Academy, ahead of a larger bow echo complex. This storm began to show signs of rotation just north of Colorado Springs as it passed by the city to its northeast. The regional ARES network was buzzing quite a bit with hundreds of eyes on this storm as it began to develop a funnel cloud just west of Black Forest. As the storm continued to drift east-southeast the funnel began to descend towards the ground ultimately touching down just west of Black Forest. Several eye witness accounts, video recording, and live camera shots showed the skinny tornado moving through an empty field producing no discernible damage.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2133, -105.1041)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 851209. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.