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<br /> <br />METEOROLOGY. HYDROLOGY. BIG THOMPSON RIVER AND CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER BASINS 21 <br /> <br /> <br />FIGURE 16.-Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite photograph, 1200 MDT. July 31,1976. Bright areas are clouds. <br /> <br />where surface temperatures peaked at 900F or more. A <br />combination of increasing temperatures and weak <br />dynamics associated with the northward-moving <br />pressure trough are believed to be responsible for the <br />lower pressures west of the Continental Divide. The <br />pattern of increasing and decreasing pressures con- <br />tributed to an increase in the east-to-west pressure gra- <br />dient across northeastern Colorado. <br />The radar summaries and satellite photographs (figs. <br />15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23) show that deep convection <br />developed over a large part of the Rocky Mountains <br />and central High Plains. Several large thunderstorms <br />occurred along and just north of the trailing front in <br />eastern Colorado and southern Kansas. A large area of <br />showers and thunderstorms also developed over the <br />mountains of northern New Mexico and southwestern <br />Colorado. In southern Utah, a well-defined squall line <br />was moving north-northeastward at 20-25 knots. In <br />the late afternoon, widespread convective activity also <br /> <br />spread over east-central Wyoming. Generally, the <br />storms that developed in western Kansas and eastern <br />Colorado and Wyoming were slow-moving or sta- <br />tionary, while those to the west of the Continental <br />Divide moved to the north or northeast at 15-25 <br />knots. <br />By 1600 MDT the trailing front had merged with the <br />leading front over most of Kansas and was only 30-50 <br />miles east of the foothills in northeastern Colorado (fig. <br />21). At this time, scattered cumulus and towering <br />cumulus clouds were over the foothills area of <br />northeastern Colorado, which includes the drainage <br />areas of the Big Thompson and the Cache la Poudre <br />Rivers, but little or no precipitation fell (figs. 22, 23). <br />Scattered thunderstorms were forming along the <br />northern slopes of the Palmer Ridge southeast of Den- <br />ver, Colo., and moderate convective activity had devel- <br />oped in the mountains of north-central Colorado. <br />At 1602 MDT, a third rawinsonde was released at <br />