Denver Weather: Stay alert Sunday to storms with heavy rain, flash flood potential

If you woke up thinking it feels humid outside, you're right. Dew point temperatures ranged from the 40s in the mountains to the 60s in Denver and on the eastern plains Sunday morning. The dew point indicates how much moisture is in the air and numbers like you see on the map below are high for Colorado.

As we add in daytime heating and the presence of a cool front stuck against the Front Range, we'll see the groundwork laid for widespread thunderstorms to develop during the afternoon. Some storms will have the potential to produce torrential amounts of rain. On Saturday we saw a storm in northeast Commerce City drop 1.48 inches of rain in 20 minutes. Rainfall rates like that can unleash a flash flood. We could even see a few areas get multiple rounds of storms.

The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch for the entire Front Range of Colorado, including all of Interstate 25 and the adjacent foothills. All of metro Denver and a large portion of the eastern plains are in the watch box too. 

A watch doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will experience heavy rain, but it does mean the risk is high enough that you should pay close attention to the radar as storms develop today. The watch is in effect from 2 p.m. until midnight.

The western half of Colorado will be mostly sunny and hot. There could be a few stray storms around but the bulk of today's active weather will be found along and east of Interstate 25.

Highs on Sunday will climb into the 70s and 80s in the mountains with 80s and 90s for the lower elevations. Temperatures will climb again during the week ahead as some drier air moves back into the state.