Strong to severe storms occurred across the far southeast plains on this day. Small hail was observed, however, winds gusted to 60 to 65 mph.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS PUB wrote it up.
Strong to severe storms occurred across the far southeast plains on this day. Small hail was observed, however, winds gusted to 60 to 65 mph.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Pueblo, CO wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 10, 10:31 PM MST, 2 hours 22 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Pueblo CO 1131 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 .UPDATE... Issued at 935 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 Updated for expiration of Red Flag Warning this evening. Winds are diminishing and will continue to do so this evening. RH values have started to increase, with most 20 percent or more. && .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Wednesday) Issued at 253 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 Key Messages: 1) Critical Fire Weather Conditions will continue across the area through this evening. 2) Dangerous fire weather conditions are forecast for Wednesday due to strong winds and low humidity values. 3) Low chance of strong to severe weather Baca and Prowers County Wednesday afternoon with large hail and strong outflow winds possible. 4) Areas and dust will be possible through Wednesday afternoon. Smoke is from the New Mexico wildfires and dust from strong winds across the region. Currently...satellite imagery shows an upper trough sitting along the central California coast with broad southwesterly flow spreading across Utah and Colorado. Skies are relatively clear across the region. Temperatures are warm across the Plains with mid 70s to mid 80s. Winds are southerly with gusts 30 to 40 mph and combining with humidity values under 15 percent to produce critical fire weather conditions over the entire area. Satellite imagery also shows widespread smoke lifting north out of New Mexico and into our eastern Plains. Rest of today through tonight...the upper level trough will slowly begin to shift eastward spreading increasing southwesterly low across southern Colorado. Increasing mid and high level cloud cover will begin to impact the region late tonight. Low level flow will shift more southerly across the Plains, helping to advect moisture northward by morning. This will allow for humidities to recover nicely near the Kansas border. Elsewhere, light flow and dry air will remain in place, with humidity recoveries less than 25 percent. Overnight temperatures will remain mild with 50s across the Plains, and 40s over the San Luis Valley. Wednesday...another dangerous fire weather day is in store for southern Colorado. The upper trough will continue eastward, spreading increasing southwest flow across the region. Widespread wind gusts 35 to 50 mph will be possible by mid morning, and continue into the afternoon. As southwesterlies kick in, it will force moisture on the Plains quickly eastward. Most high-res model guidance pushes the dryline east into Kansas, along with all possible thunderstorm activity. The NAMnest is the outlier, which fires convection over Prowers and Baca County by late afternoon, quickly moving it east into Kansas during the evening. Lowered pops over Prowers and Baca Counties based on the latest guidance and dryline placement. If a thunderstorm should fire, SBCAPE values around 2000 j/kg would support large hail. High cloud bases will also promote a high wind threat. Shear is modest at 25 to 30 kts. But at this time, it appears thunderstorm activity will be just to our east. For the Red Flag Warning, widespread strong winds, with gusts 35 to 50 mph are expected by mid to late morning and continue through the afternoon. Humidity values will be low, falling to under 10 percent. This will lead to dangerous fire weather conditions for the whole region. If a thunderstorm should fire over Prowers and Baca Counties, the risk of dry lightning would be elevated. This lightning could lead to fire starts, even if humidity values are above 15 percent. Mozley .LONG TERM...(Wednesday night through Tuesday) Issued at 253 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 Key messages: 1) Critical fire weather conditions will be in place for for most areas late afternoon/evening on Wednesday. Extremely dry conditions on Thursday will result in dangerous to extreme fire weather conditions over most areas, especially over the plains. 2) Critical fire weather conditions during the afternoon and early evening are going to continue from Friday through Tuesday over the mountains. 3) A few thunderstorms, possibly strong to severe, may develop over the far southeastern plains Wednesday evening. 4) Very strong winds with areas of blowing dust will be possible over the plains and San Luis Valley on Wednesday and over the central and eastern plains on Thursday. 5) Smoke from wildfires in New Mexico will infiltrate areas of the eastern mountains and plains and this could reduce visibilities and bring about poor air quality conditions through Thursday. 6) A slight chance of thunderstorms will be possible over the eastern mountains on Sunday afternoon. A chance of thunderstorms will be possible over the mountains for Monday and Tuesday afternoon. Detailed discussion: Wednesday Night through Friday... Humidity recovery will finally be at least noticeable overnight on Wednesday, especially east of the I-25 corridor. However, we will be under strong and dry southerly and southwesterly flow for all of Thursday, as the main trough axis continues to push north through the day. This southerly flow will continue to bring smoke from fires burning in New Mexico into our area on Thursday. A robust south/north oriented jet streak moves directly over our region on Thursday morning, with the strongest surface winds looking to push through south central and southeast Colorado between 3am and Noon on Thursday. Gusts up to 45kts look likely at this point, especially in El Paso County, the San Luis Valley, and the far eastern plains. Unfortunately, even after decent moisture recovery out east on Wednesday night, we are still looking at relative humidity values in the single digits for our entire area, with some of us in the single digits as early as 10am. This set up will lead to yet another day of critical to extreme fire weather conditions on Thursday afternoon. Moreover, HRRR guidance also shows dewpoints as low as -15 to -25 degree range over all the mountains, valleys, and most of the I-25 corridor during the middle of the day. With these values, potentially dangerous fire weather conditions will be widespread over these areas as RH values drop to 5 percent and below. Some areas could see red flag conditions persisting for a few hours after sunset, especially in the San Luis Valley and out east in Kiowa, Bent, Prowers, and Baca counties. Ensemble guidance shows good agreement that a transition to zonal flow will set up for Friday, with clear skies and temperatures of about 10 to 15 degrees above normal for this time of year. Daytime highs in the 80s in the lower terrain and 70s in our mountains are expected for Friday afternoon. We will remain dry, but zonal flow will help to clear any remaining smoke out of our region. Winds will still be high enough to lead to fire weather conditions on Friday afternoon, especially along and west of the I-25 corridor. -Ehr Saturday through Sunday... A ridge is going to build in over the western states and then continue to propagate towards the east and over the region throughout the weekend. This will allow for the west to northwesterly flow to continue in the mid to upper levels over the area and result in dry conditions to persist under subsidence. However, there could be enough mid level moisture present with orographic lifting to produce a few isolated thunderstorms over the eastern mountains, with the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains looking like the best chance on Sunday afternoon. With the dry conditions and westerly winds still in place over the higher terrain, there will be fire weather concerns continuing for some of these locations, including the San Luis Valley. Temperatures will remain relatively cooler, closer to around the seasonal average, due to a weak frontal passage from the tail end of a large major shortwave trough downstream over southern Canada during the day on Saturday. Monday through Tuesday... The dirty side of the ridge is still going to be overhead with the axis over the central Great Plains. There is going to be some moisture being advected up into the ridge from Mexico, however only some weak troughing over northern Colorado due to a larger area of troughing over the NW CONUS will allow for some thunderstorms to develop over the major mountain ranges, especially Rampart Range and Palmer Divide by later in the afternoon on Monday. On Tuesday, the latest ECMWF has the mid levels being much drier than the GFS, which has thunderstorm development over the mountains due to a more moist mid level flow. Depending on which model verifies, this could either help help to mitigate the threat of fire weather conditions if enough precipitation occurs, or ignite fires due to lightning strikes. Nonetheless, the ensembles display a continued downsloping and dry pattern over the higher terrain with elevated fire weather concerns. Temperatures will continue to warm as well, ahead of the troughing. There will be more widespread fire weather conditions in place over the higher terrain and there could also be spotty areas over parts of the plains, especially along the I-25 corridor for Tuesday afternoon. -Stewey && .AVIATION...(For the 06Z TAFS through 06Z Wednesday night) Issued at 1129 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 VFR conditions expected at all TAF stations, KALS, KCOS and KPUB, throughout the forecast period. However there may be periods of blowing dust at any of the TAF stations, which could reduce visibility enough to bring MVFR conditions. Visibility could also be reduced at any of the TAF stations due to smoke blowing in from the southwest from the major fires in New Mexico. Winds will start out light at all TAF station, coming out of the southwest at KALS, and out of the northeast at KCOS. KPUB is expected to start out light and variable. Starting around 15Z all TAF stations should start being gusty out of the southwest and expected to remain gusty through the end of the forecast period. - Riser && .PUB WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Red Flag Warning from 10 AM to 10 PM MDT Wednesday for COZ220>237. Red Flag Warning from 9 AM to 10 PM MDT Thursday for COZ220>237. && UPDATE...SIMCOE SHORT TERM...MOZLEY LONG TERM...EHR/STEWARD AVIATION...RISER
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Pueblo CO 1001 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 COZ058>089-093>099-120415- Western Mosquito Range/East Lake County Above 11000 Feet- Leadville Vicinity/Lake County Below 11000 Feet- Eastern Sawatch Mountains Above 11000 Feet- Western Chaffee County Between 9000 and 11000 Feet- Central Chaffee County Below 9000 Feet- Western Mosquito Range/East Chaffee County Above 9000 Feet- Saguache County West of Continental Divide Below 10000 Feet- Saguache County East of Continental Divide Below 10000 Feet- La Garita Mountains Above 10000 Feet- Upper Rio Grande Valley/Eastern San Juan Mountains Below 10000 Feet-Eastern San Juan Mountains Above 10000 Feet- Del Norte Vicinity/Northern San Luis Valley Below 8500 Feet- Alamosa Vicinity/Central San Luis Valley Below 8500 Feet- Southern San Luis Valley- Northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains Between 8500 And 11000 Feet- Northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains Above 11000 Feet- Southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains Between 7500 and 11000 Feet- Southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains Above 11000 Feet- Northwestern Fremont County Above 8500 Feet- Western/Central Fremont County Below 8500 Feet- Wet Mountain Valley Below 8500 Feet- Wet Mountains between 6300 and 10000 Feet- Wet Mountains Above 10000 Feet- Teller County/Rampart Range Above 7500 Feet/Pikes Peak Between 7500 And 11000 Feet-Pikes Peak Above 11000 Feet- Canon City Vicinity/Eastern Fremont County- Northern El Paso County/Monument Ridge/Rampart Range Below 7500 Feet- Colorado Springs Vicinity/Southern El Paso County/Rampart Range Below 7400 Feet-Pueblo Vicinity/Pueblo County Below 6300 Feet- Walsenburg Vicinity/Upper Huerfano River Basin Below 7500 Feet- Trinidad Vicinity/Western Las Animas County Below 7500 Feet- Crowley County-La Junta Vicinity/Otero County- Eastern Las Animas County-Western Kiowa County- Eastern Kiowa County-Las Animas Vicinity/Bent County- Lamar Vicinity/Prowers County-Springfield Vicinity/Baca County- 1001 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 This hazardous weather outlook is for portions of central...east central...south central and southeast Colorado. .DAY ONE...Tonight No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Wednesday through Monday Widespread dangerous fire weather conditions are expected each day through the end of the work week, with prolonged periods of low relative humidity and gusty winds. The most critical conditions look to occur Wednesday into Thursday. Fire weather concerns continue into the weekend, though may not be as widespread. An isolated strong to severe storm is possible Wednesday afternoon over Prowers and Baca Counties. Strong outflow winds and damaging hail would be the primary severe risks with storms near the Kansas border. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Weather spotters will not be needed tonight. 10/GARBEROGLIO
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PUEBLO CO
902 PM MDT TUE MAY 10 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0853 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 9 S SPRINGFIELD 37.28N 102.62W
05/10/2022 M61 MPH BACA CO ASOS
ASOS STATION KSPD 8 S SPRINGFIELD.
&&Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Pueblo Co 905 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 COZ097>099-110515- Las Animas Vicinity/Bent County-Lamar Vicinity/Prowers County- Springfield Vicinity/Baca County- INCLUDING Las Animas, Lamar, Springfield, and Walsh 905 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 Outflow from distant thunderstorms over the Texas Panhandle will produce brief wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph through 10 pm mdt. These winds may produce areas of blowing dust and rapid changes in visibility on area highways before they diminish after 10 pm.
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PUEBLO CO
941 PM MDT TUE MAY 10 2022
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0932 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 4 WSW LAMAR 38.07N 102.68W
05/10/2022 M55 MPH PROWERS CO ASOS
ASOS STATION KLAA LAMAR AIRPORT.
&&Special Weather Statement National Weather Service Pueblo Co 947 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 COZ095-096-110600- Western Kiowa County-Eastern Kiowa County- INCLUDING Eads and Sheridan Lake 947 PM MDT Tue May 10 2022 Outflow from distant thunderstorms over the Texas Panhandle will produce brief wind gusts of 50 to 60 mph through 11 pm mdt. These winds may produce areas of blowing dust and rapid changes in visibility on area highways before they diminish after 11 pm.
The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 166 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:09 UTC.
2 high wind, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Lamar airport.
Springfield airport.
Lamar airport.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Colorado in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Colorado, May 2022
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1026766, 1026762, 1026769.