The boundary of moisture wrapped itself around the Low settling quite nicely along the front range giving mid 30 dews. As the front from the NW came roaring in convection bands formed along this front boundary. Daytime heating as well as easterly to northeasterly winds helped to support incredible dynamics. This front put on quite a show from Denver into Cheyenne with the support of orographic lifting and frontogenesis. Temps were as high into the 60s giving plenty of energy into the first wave of convection along the front.
I knew there was going to be development, but I did not intend there to be enough dew to pour into the band of convection. That is the beauty of the Rockies in the spring. I expected to be chasing the Cheyenne Ridge, but I just didn't feel like going after rain bands. Turns out Cheyenne experienced intense thunderstorms consisting of rain, hail, snow, lightning, and the works of a front. These bands rained out once moving NE into the Wyoming/Nebraska border which was my target area. These were the ones I would have chased, but I just waited as I saw moisture convergence potential along the front range. Than BAMMM...convection!
Today I saw what many of us saw if you were along the front range. A long extending band of convection along the cold front. Intense shear, bb hail, and that smell of spring rain.
In the second band coming out of Boulder extending all the way into Greeley. CC lightning & snow pellets i like to call it (graupel) were seen out of this line of storms.
All in all an amazing front in the books. What a great trick play by the weather!
Happy April Fools....
look closely and let your imagination wander....
3 comments:
Wait... you like to call it graupel or snow pellets?
yea I forgot a comma...lol....SNOW PELLETS ROCK!
Oh yeah? Well, I call it graupel, sucka! It's basically hail anyway, but created in convective cloud with an entirely sub-freezing cloud layer. :)
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