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<br />,,:' <br /> <br />~ <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />WEEKLY NEwSLETTER <br />96-6 <br /> <br />RECEIVED <br />MAY 3 0 1996 <br /> <br />Colorado Water <br />FOR THE PERIOD MAY 18 - MAY 24, l~,!arvationBoard <br /> <br />General Interest: After the past weekend, one would think Nature <br />tried to end its drought in the space of a three day period over <br />Memorial Day weekend. Here is a brief recap of some of the weather <br />events that happened-leading up to, and during, that weekend: <br /> <br />After iii cold front passed in the early part of the period, <br />cool, stable weather conditions prevailed over the region. Later in <br />the week the cold front moved north of us bringing generally hot, <br />dry days, However, by Friday the frontal zone again had moved well <br />back to the .south of us, as if it couldn't make up its mind (if it <br />had one). Flowing into the frontal zone were strong southerly low <br />level winds which lifted up over the frontal boundary into the <br />highly unstable atmosphere in New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma <br />panhandles; severe storms quickly formed and tracked northeast into <br />Southwestern Kansas, Meanwhile", in 'Southwest Kansas some storms <br />formed resulting from the cool, moist air advecting from the east <br />being warmed and lifted by afternoon heating and aided by upslope <br />lifting. Eventually, Kansas storms and storms moving northerly from <br />Texas and Oklahoma were widespread. Upper troughing also appeared <br />to playa role in storm development. Severe storms continued from <br />Friday night into Saturday morning. <br /> <br />An upper level low pressure circulation had become cut-off <br />over southern Nevada by Friday, the 24th, allowed minor troughs <br />aloft to rotate counter-clockwise around it. An increase in upslope <br />winds in the afternoon of Saturday, the 25th, set up a north-south <br />line of non-severe storms near the Kansas-Colorado, state line <br />creating a "train"---where one storm trails another and passes over <br />nearly the same ground as an earlier storm. These storms continued <br />for a several hours producing considerable rainfall. <br /> <br />\ <br /> <br />F.""nt-ual1 y "n tho o"'''n' ~~ 0" the "St-h .,..th ~he' "p--- 1-.' <br />-: - -~ - - i ,-~ ...- -- ~ -. ";"&"':1 .... .. - - , ""- ~ , ..... t'......... ",""yo( <br />still in the desert Southwest, one of the several troughs rotating <br />around the low pressure center appeared to help organize widespread <br />thunderstorm development in Texas and Oklahoma. However, by the <br />time the storms became developed in Kansas there were relatively <br />few having hail in them; generally, copious rainfall was the case <br />and amounts of 1 - 3 inches, or more, were not uncommon. It looked <br />like every square inch of Southwestern and Western Kansas received <br />some rainfall. <br /> <br />Finally, on the 26th, a surface low pressure system moved NNE <br />from Southwest Texas into Southwest Kansas. A cold front extended <br />southwest from the surface low deep into Texas, Moderate upslope <br />winds, high moisture, low level convergence and afternoon heating <br />combined over Southwest Kansas to help severe thunderstorms build <br />rapidly and vigorously in early afternoon. Simultaneously, the <br />upper low was moving from the desert Southwest in Arizona through <br />Colorado enroute to northern Nebraska. Another trough rotated <br />