While copious amounts of monsoonal moisture are streaming into Colorado, Nederland has remained mostly high and dry. A large area of high pressure in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere will continue to slowly shift to the east of Colorado over the next several days. Southwest flow on the west side of this high pressure ridge will continue to pump moisture into our region. One problem for Nederland will be the winds which will be predominantly from the southwest to west northwest. This is not a favorable direction for good rain producing thunderstorms in Nederland. For one thing, these winds are downsloping off of the highest mountains in Indian Peaks which tends to inhibit convection. What tends to happen is that thunderstorms form just over or to the east of Nederland in these scenarios and intensify when they blow off of the foothills and onto the Plains. As a result, most of the beneficial rains fall over places like Boulder and to the east.
Nevertheless, there is the possibility of some rumbles of thunder and at least some rain each day, primarily in the afternoon, into the weekend. The summer monsoon is here! Let’s hope the rains make it to Nederland!