Alert archive / Colorado / Freeze Warnings in 2026
Freeze Warning 3, NWS Denver/Boulder, CO
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO issued this freeze warning at May 18, 2026, 11:36 AM MDT for Arapahoe County, Douglas County, Elbert County, Colorado. It took effect at May 19, 2026, 12:00 AM MDT. It was in force for 8 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named.
The facts
- Issued
- May 18, 2026, 11:36 AM MDT (17:36 UTC)
- In effect from
- May 19, 2026, 12:00 AM MDT
- Expired
- May 19, 2026, 8:00 AM MDT
- In force
- 8 hr
- Issued by
- NWS Denver/Boulder, CO
Counties Arapahoe County, CO, Douglas County, CO, Elbert County, CO
The radar
The Denver radar (KFTG), 41 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:37 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
The nearest sounding before it
Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 12:00Z, 5.6 hours before the alert went out and 437 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1617 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -185 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 575 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 371 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 392 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 13.2
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this freeze warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Denver/Boulder, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before this freeze warning went out at May 18, 9:33 AM MDT, 2 hours 3 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, May 18, 9:33 AM MDT, 2 hours 3 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Service Notice</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
<main class="wrap">
<section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
<div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
<h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
<p id="message1">
The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
</p>
<p id="message2">
Please try again in a few minutes.
</p>
<p class="small" id="detail">
If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
</p>
</section>
</main>
<script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>In the hours before
Local storm report, May 18, 10:49 AM MDT, 47 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
<title>Service Notice</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
<main class="wrap">
<section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
<div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
<h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
<p id="message1">
The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
</p>
<p id="message2">
Please try again in a few minutes.
</p>
<p class="small" id="detail">
If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
</p>
</section>
</main>
<script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>The office that day
Everything else NWS Denver/Boulder, CO issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 6:25 PM MDT | Special Weather Statement | BOU | Grand | 35 min |
| May 17, 6:56 PM MDT | Special Weather Statement | BOU | Arapahoe | 34 min |
| May 17, 7:22 PM MDT | Special Weather Statement | BOU | Boulder | 23 min |
| May 17, 7:50 PM MDT | Special Weather Statement | BOU | Boulder | 25 min |
| May 17, 10:58 PM MDT | Winter Storm Warning | BOU | Boulder, Grand, Jackson, Larimer | 22 hr |
| May 18, 11:36 AM MDT | Frost Advisory | BOU | Adams, Arapahoe, Elbert, Larimer, Lincoln, Logan and 5 more | 20 hr |
Nearby
Freeze Warnings in Colorado, 2026Every freeze warning in 2026
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.