Thursday rain sets record; September is wettest since 1909
How wet is it?
Wet enough to break a nearly 100-year-old record.
The National Weather Service reported that Thursday was officially the wettest day ever in Colorado Springs. That one storm made this the rainiest September on record since 1909.
About 4.3 inches of rain fell at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport on Thursday, the most since record keeping began, said Randy Gray, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Pueblo. That swamped the previous record of 3.98 inches set in 1999.
By 6 a.m. Friday, 4.63 inches had accumulated - the same amount that fell in all of September 1909.
Gray said the voluminous rainstorm came from a combination of a low-pressure system and tropical moisture from the Pacific Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.
The heavy rain sent a surge of water down Sand Creek that closed one of Colorado Springs' main east-west roads, Platte Avenue. In Fountain,it led to flood levels at Fountain Creek and prompted a flash flood warning. About 3 a.m. Fountain Creek crested at nearly 8.5 feet, the highest level in five years and the seventh-highest peak of all time, Gray said. But no major flooding problems were reported.
True to form for Colorado's reputation as a place where the weather changes in an instant, Saturday's forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 73.
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Contact the writer: 636-0198 or brian.newsome@gazette.com
