fbpx

The I-70 Scout & Eastern Colorado News

Category: Weather & Traffic

  • Western states to sizzle this week as heat builds

    Western states to sizzle this week as heat builds

    The hottest regions outside Central California are likely to be southern Oregon, the Willamette Valley and areas east of the Washington Cascades. By Wednesday, temperatures are forecast to climb to near or over 100 F across most of these locations. 

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – August 15, 2022 – Summertime heat is set to build across the West as a gradual shift in the weather pattern occurs this week. Forecasters say temperatures will steadily climb between 10 and 18 degrees Fahrenheit above average in the upcoming days in cities such as Seattle, Portland and Medford, Oregon.


    Excessive heat watches were issued across numerous counties from north-central California, to the San Joaquin Valley for this week (shown in red).

    “Much like recent hot stretches, this will be caused by a large bulge in the jet stream, acting to keep the storm track lifted north and allowing temperatures to surge in the coming days,” explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Andrew Johnson-Levine.

    The influx of hot weather will expand across Northwest states like Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana; however, the heat will also grip portions of Central California and Nevada, throughout the week.

    An expansive swath of excessive heat watches have been issued from north-central California, through the San Joaquin Valley. The watches cover numerous counties through the latter half of the week and span from Redding to Bakersfield, California.

    Western states to sizzle this week as heat builds (Full Story) >>

  • Triple-digit temps forecast for the Southwest this week

    Triple-digit temps forecast for the Southwest this week

    By Ryan Adamson, AccuWeather meteorologist

    Published Jul. 8, 2022 6:28 AM MDT | Updated Jul. 11, 2022 11:03 AM MDT

  • Triple-digit temps forecast for the Southwest into next week

    An active start to the North American monsoon has helped to keep temperatures relatively in check in the Southwest recently, but AccuWeather forecasters say that the chance of thunderstorms will decrease in the coming days, allowing temperatures to swell across the region.
    Much of the monsoon’s moisture has been focused over Colorado, New Mexico and southeastern Utah as of late. Farther to the west, many locations have received very little, if any, rain. When the ground is dry, the sun’s energy is not needed to evaporate moisture. Instead, the ground is heated quickly which results in higher temperatures.
    As a ‘heat dome’ shifts to the west this weekend and into next week, temperatures will be on the rise. Underneath a heat dome, sinking air causes temperatures to climb, and precipitation and cloud cover tend to be limited.
    “A resilient heat dome that has brought hot weather to the southern Plains this week will spread into the Southwest and park itself there, likely through much of next week,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist La Troy Thornton.
    One example of a city that will be under the dome of heat is Las Vegas. The last time Las Vegas had measurable rain was on March 28 when 0.1 of an inch of rain fell. This extended period of dryness will allow for efficient heating, and the mercury will rise to around 110 degrees Fahrenheit by Monday, a few degrees shy of record territory. Similar values are likely on Tuesday and Wednesday.
    People planning to visit outdoor destinations, such as Zion National Park and Arches National Park in Utah, should avoid hiking in the afternoon when temperatures are near their peak.
    Phoenix received 0.31 of an inch of rain in late June thanks to monsoonal thunderstorms. However, no measurable rain has fallen since, and the ground is fairly dry. Temperatures will rise above 110 degrees as early as the weekend and stay there through much of next week. The highest predicted temperature is 112 degrees on Monday. However, the temperature may be a degree or two lower in some Phoenix neighborhoods thanks to the city’s Cool Pavement Program aimed at reducing the intensity of the urban heat island effect.
    As high as these temperatures are expected to be, records are unlikely to be broken.
    “Record heat may be hard to come by for many locations because this is already a very warm time of year,” explained Thornton.
    Farther north, Salt Lake City has had four days above 100 degrees so far this year. That number may double or triple by the time next week comes to an end. The heat will peak a bit later in Salt Lake City, as the heat dome builds northward throughout next week.
    Since normals and records are not as high in Salt Lake City as they are in the Desert Southwest, this may be an exception to records being out of reach. The forecast high of 105 F on Saturday would surpass the correct record for the date of 102 F. The mercury could also challenge the daily record of 107 F on Wednesday, July 13.
    With moisture suppressed, the chance of monsoonal thunderstorms will be low outside of New Mexico. However, given the lack of moisture, any thunderstorms that do develop may produce more lightning than rain. These are called dry thunderstorms as most or all of the rain falling from the clouds evaporates before making it to the ground, while lightning from the storm could spark fires in the parched landscape.
    The greater focus of any thunderstorms should be on the edge of the heat dome.
    “The monsoon’s moisture will shift west and fuel spotty thunderstorms across the mountains of Nevada and California by the middle of next week,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Mike LeSeney.
    It may take until next weekend for temperatures to lower somewhat as the heat dome finally begins to weaken and shift eastward over the Plains.

    SPREAD THE NEWS

    COMMENT, Like, Follow & SHARE @I70Scout

    CURRENT EDITION

    WEATHER & TRAFFIC    PUZZLES    RECENT NEWS    ADVERTISE WITH US

  • Soil Erosion Strategies

    Soil erosion from both wind and water can happen nearly anytime in Colorado. When soil leaves a field due to wind or water, the field’s productivity is reduced. Topsoil that leaves a field is the best soil and is high in organic matter. Low organic matter soils experience reduced crop yields. In addition, blowing soil can have consequences on the field the soil is blowing into not to mention a dust storm’s effect on the environment with reduced visibility. Water erosion simply carries top soil off your field and into someone else’s or the topsoil is carried into streams and lakes as sediment. Some weather issues magnify soil erosion potential such as drought, which reduces the amount of crop residue raised and thus the amount of cover protecting a field. Summer flooding due to intense rain storms can create water runoff issues.
    The most effective soil erosion control strategy is to leave crop residues in place after harvest. This strategy insures maximum cover during winter dormant periods. Crop residue management includes practices such as reduced till, no-till, stubble mulch, strip cropping and cover cropping. Each of these methods substitutes chemical or cover weed control for tillage. Each one of these practices have advantages and disadvantages but all will help reduce both wind and water erosion potentials in a field. The bottom line is; when soil remains covered from the previous crop’s residue, both wind and water erosion will be reduced, leaving topsoil in place. Tillage, drought and flooding increase soil erosion issues.
    What can be done when wind erosion has overtaken a field? Emergency tillage is an option to suppress wind erosion. Emergency tillage strategies should include the following: use a combination of tractor speed, tillage depth, and implement shovel size to achieve the roughest soil surface with the most soil clods. Surface roughness is the number one wind erosion control strategy when wind erosion is the issue. The rougher the soil surface with more dirt clods, the more protected the field will be. This condition becomes more difficult with extremely dry soils. Try to start the emergency tillage on upward wind field locations. Till in a perpendicular direction to prevailing wind direction. Our prevailing winds mostly come from the south making an easterly-westerly tillage direction most effective, when possible. Variations of this tillage direction can still be effective. Try and skip passes (up to 50% of the field) from tillage which leaves some crop residue anchored. Tillage should not be solid. Shovel spacing of 24 to 40 inches can reduce wind erosion, depending on soil type and conditions. If a second tillage is needed later, increase the tillage depth.
    The best wind and water soil erosion control strategy is leaving past crop residues in place. However, if soil erosion from wind becomes an issue due to drought, emergency tillage can be a short-term option.
    Source: Kansas State University MF2206

    SPREAD THE NEWS

    COMMENT, Like, Follow & SHARE @I70Scout

    CURRENT EDITION

    WEATHER & TRAFFIC    PUZZLES    RECENT NEWS    ADVERTISE WITH US

  • Thunderstorms to mark start of North American monsoon in Southwest

    Thunderstorms to mark start of North American monsoon in Southwest

    This year’s monsoon will start earlier than average, as AccuWeather’s long-range forecast team indicated it could in the 2022 U.S. summer forecast.

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – June 15, 2022 – A surge of moisture will arrive in the southwestern United States later this week, and the pattern change will be enough to trigger the onset of the North American monsoon, AccuWeather meteorologists say.

    A tropical breeze will help initiate the annual event for the Southwest that helps produce an increase in showers and thunderstorms. The change in wind direction from dry west to northwest winds to a moist southerly flow will allow the first spotty showers and thunderstorms to erupt in the pattern starting Thursday and Friday in parts of New Mexico. The storms will then spread westward into part of Arizona and northward to portions of Colorado and Utah over the weekend and into early next week.

    This year’s monsoon will start earlier than average, as AccuWeather’s long-range forecast team indicated it could in the 2022 U.S. summer forecast.

    The average start date for the North American monsoon in southern New Mexico and Arizona is July 3, according to the National Weather Service. However, the monsoon season is similar to other wet seasons and times of the year.

    Thunderstorms to mark start of North American monsoon in Southwest (Full Story) >>

  • Drought, winds to fuel Southwest wildfires as heat builds

    Temperatures across the southwestern United States could set new daily records through midweek, contributing to an elevated wildfire risk across the region.

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 24, 2022 – For weeks, the Southwest has been gripped by extreme drought, rapidly spreading wildfires and surges of heat. AccuWeather forecasters say that this trend will continue with the temperatures in some cities possibly approaching record territory.

    Across the Southwest, the fire season is already off to an active start. Earlier this month, destructive wildfires raged from Texas to Arizona, some of which are still active fires. The Hermits Peak Fire, which started in New Mexico when crews lost control of a prescribed burn, was only 40% contained with over 311,000 acres lost as of Tuesday morning. Farther south in the state, the Black Fire was only 11% contained with over 146,000 acres burned as of the start of the week.

    Active fires are also continuing in Arizona. The Tunnel Fire, located just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, has burned nearly 20,000 acres, but it is 98% contained as of Monday morning.

    This past weekend, calm and cool weather helped fire crews battle the blazes across the Southwest. A bulge in the jet stream over the East Coast created a bottleneck in the atmosphere, sending temperatures surging in the East but allowing for cooler-than-normal weather for much of the rest of the country, even allowing for a late-season snowstorm in Colorado and Wyoming. However, forecasters say that a change in this pattern is already taking place.

    “As a cooler air mass slides into the eastern half of the country, this will open the door for heat to continue building in the Southwest,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Matt Benz.

    Drought, winds to fuel Southwest wildfires as heat builds (Full Story) >>

  • Drought, winds to fuel Southwest wildfires as heat builds

    Drought, winds to fuel Southwest wildfires as heat builds

    Temperatures across the southwestern United States could set new daily records through midweek, contributing to an elevated wildfire risk across the region.

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 23, 2022 – For weeks, the Southwest has been gripped by extreme drought, rapidly spreading wildfires and surges of heat. AccuWeather forecasters say that this trend will continue with the temperatures in some cities possibly approaching record territory.

    Across the Southwest, the fire season is already off to an active start. Earlier this month, destructive wildfires raged from Texas to Arizona, some of which are still active fires. The Hermits Peak Fire, which started in New Mexico when crews lost control of a prescribed burn, was only 40% contained with over 310,000 acres lost as of Monday morning. Farther south in the state, the Black Fire remained only 8% contained with over 130,000 acres burned as of the start of the week.

    Active fires are also continuing in Arizona. The Tunnel Fire, located just north of Flagstaff, Arizona, has burned nearly 10,000 acres, but it is 98% contained as of Monday morning.

    This past weekend, calm and cool weather helped fire crews battle the blazes across the Southwest. A bulge in the jet stream over the East Coast created a bottleneck in the atmosphere, sending temperatures surging in the East but allowing for cooler-than-normal weather for much of the rest of the country, even allowing for a late-season snowstorm in Colorado and Wyoming. However, forecasters say that a change in this pattern is underway.

    Drought, winds to fuel Southwest wildfires as heat builds (Full Story) >>

     

    About AccuWeather, Inc. and AccuWeather.com

    AccuWeather, recognized and documented as the most accurate source of weather forecasts and warnings in the world, has saved tens of thousands of lives, prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and tens of billions of dollars in property damage. With global headquarters in State College, PA and other offices around the world, AccuWeather serves more than 1.5 billion people daily to help them plan their lives and get more out of their day through digital media properties, such as AccuWeather.com and mobile, as well as radio, television, newspapers, and the national 24/7 AccuWeather Network channel. Additionally, AccuWeather produces and distributes news, weather content, and video for more than 180,000 third-party websites.

  • 2 seasons in 2 days as cold air, snow return to central US

    “With trees leafing out in the lower and intermediate elevations, even a few inches of wet, clinging snow can cause problems ranging from limbs breaking to power outages and blocked roads,” cautioned AccuWeather Senior Storm Warning Meteorologist William Clark.

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 19, 2022 – Residents from the Rockies to the Plains to the Midwest have had weather more representative of the middle of summer over the past several days, but AccuWeather forecasters say that the warmth is about to come to an abrupt end with some locations plunging back into winter.

    Thursday will be the final warm day in the region with temperatures ranging from the 80s F in Denver, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Valentine, Nebraska, to the century mark or above in Amarillo and Lubbock, Texas.

    A strong cold front will begin to dive southward through the northern Rockies on Thursday night and continue its southward journey through Friday.

    Precipitation associated with the front will start off as rain in Wyoming and Colorado, but as temperatures tumble after the passage of the cold front, the rain will eventually change over to snow later Friday and Friday night.

    Denver has the potential to get an unusual late-season snow accumulation with a few inches of snow in the forecast.

    R2 seasons in 2 days as cold air, snow return to central US (Full Story) >>

  • Denver weather to go from high 80s to snow in a matter of just hours

    A mixture of rain and wet snow is forecast to transition to all snow Friday night around Denver, so the weather could turn into a winter wonderland for the Major League Baseball game at Coors Field between the Colorado Rockies and New York Mets. 

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 18, 2022 – The unofficial start to the summer is nearly a week away, but AccuWeather meteorologists say a return to winter weather is in the forecast for Denver and other parts of the north-central United States.

    The cold air will bring an end to temperatures in the 70- to 90-degree range, and it will also allow rain to transition into accumulating snow from Montana to Colorado as a storm arrives from the Northwest. In some locations, snowfall totals could even surpass a foot.

    The cold push will overspread Colorado Thursday night and Friday.

    Denver will plummet at least 50 degrees from highs in the mid-80s Thursday to the mid-30s Friday morning. Temperatures may struggle to rise more than a few degrees Friday before dipping to the upper 20s Friday night with snow in the forecast. The old record low of 31 that was set in 2019 is poised to fall.

    The AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature for Thursday in Denver is currently forecast to hit 90 before the dramatic cooldown unfolds later in the day.

    Denver weather to go from high 80s to snow in a matter of just hours (Full Story) >>

  • Heat dome to bring return of triple-digit temps to Southwest

    Heat dome to bring return of triple-digit temps to Southwest

    Temperatures will begin to ramp up across the Southwest and South Central states starting on Sunday. Cities including Phoenix, where temperatures did not make it out of the 80s on Wednesday, will soar into triple digits by Saturday. Even Flagstaff, Arizona, a city located at an elevation of about 7,000 feet, will experience high temperatures 15-20 degrees above normal by Saturday.

    AccuWeather Global Weather Center – May 12, 2022 – AccuWeather forecasters say the Southwest is about to embark on a temperature roller-coaster ride as temperatures soar 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for many locations in the coming days.

    So far this week, a large swath of the southwestern United States has encountered unseasonably cool conditions, largely due to a deep southward dip in the jet stream. Places such as Death Valley, California, and Las Vegas experienced high temperatures 10-15 F below average for several days early this week. On Wednesday, Death Valley managed to hit only 78 F which is 21 degrees lower than the city’s average high of 99 F. Cities such as Chicago and Colorado Springs, Colorado, were hotter this week.

    The relief from the heat will be brief, according to forecasters. The atmospheric traffic jam that has been in place since last week, bringing record-breaking heat and violent severe thunderstorms to the Central states, unseasonable warmth to the East and an abnormal chill to the West, will finally start to clear out this upcoming weekend.

    The jet stream will begin to shift northward early this weekend and will leave room for heat currently trapped south of the U.S. to make its way north.

    “This shift in the jet stream will allow a ‘heat dome’ to build across the Southwest this weekend and into next week,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski explained.

    Heat dome to bring return of triple-digit temps to Southwest (Full Story) >>