First Alert Weather Day: Heavy storms likely Tuesday

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) – Tuesday is a First Alert Weather Day. It’s our last in a string of First Alert Weather Days, and it likely will be the most active.

Timing Tuesday’s Storms

Scattered showers will begin increasing after midnight, so we’ll have some rainy spots for the Tuesday morning drive. There can still be some dry spells, but showers and thunderstorms will continue increasing throughout the day. Scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms are likely Tuesday afternoon and evening through about midnight. Storms will end by midnight, and any lingering rain will likely end by 3 AM Wednesday.

Storm Impacts

Some storms can be severe. An isolated stronger storm may produce some small hail and gusty winds. Storms can also produce frequent and abundant cloud-to-ground lightning. Rainfall amounts of 0.25″ to 0.50″ will be common. A few areas may get less than 0.10″ of rain, and some areas can get as much as an inch of rain. Bigger amounts will be favored over the higher terrain. Heavy rain in short periods of time can cause flooding or flash flooding.

Turning Drier Starting Wednesday

Wednesday will turn three, but a showers are still possible over the mountains. Thursday and Friday will be mostly sunny and a little warmer – but not as warm as we were before the rain. An upper level low pressure circulation will set up along the Pacific Northwest Coast this weekend. The wind flow may help to direct more moisture into Colorado, and that could result in a few showers or thunderstorms; however, there are mixed signals from our forecast data. It may be that the low pressure circulation gets hung up and stalls along the Northwest Coast without making any appreciable progress inland. That may result in a three weekend for us.

Our Next 24 Hours

This evening will be mostly cloudy. A few showers or thunderstorms are possible, but much of Western Colorado will stay dry. We’ll cool from low-to-mid 80s at 6 PM to upper 70s and lower 80s at 8 PM, then to mid-to-upper 70s at 10 PM. The rest of tonight will be cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low temperatures by morning will be near 65 degrees around Grand Junction, 59 degrees around Montrose, 59 degrees around Delta, 57 degrees around Cortez, and 68 degrees around Moab. Tuesday will be mostly cloudy with scattered to widespread showers and thunderstorms. Some storms can be severe. High temperatures will be near 84 degrees around Grand Junction, 79 degrees around Montrose, 82 degrees around Delta, 84 degrees around Cortez, and 83 degrees around Moab.

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