"Biblical" Floods in Boulder Close NSIDC

Following up a line of research suggested to me by The Telegraph earlier today I followed a link to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center. This is the sight that greeted me:

NSIDC closed because of flooding on September 12th 2013

Not only are the NSIDC offices closed for the day, but so is their web site. I currently cannot access the data I was searching for. According to the BBC:

Flooding from a fast-moving storm in Colorado has killed three people and led to the evacuation of hundreds of homes.

Many roads are closed because of high water and debris, preventing rescue crews from reaching the stranded.

Up to 7in (17cm) of rain fell in three hours in the Boulder area on Thursday morning, the third day of rain.

According to Tom Yulsman at Discover magazine:

The Satellite Blog of the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies has just posted some dramatic remote sensing imagery of the continuing deluge here in Colorado. And in the explanation of what’s been happening, the author of the post, Scott Lindstrom, concluded that the extraordinary amount of rainfall we’ve experienced here in the Boulder area “could be classified as a 1,000-year event.”

But could it really be something that occurs only once in a thousand years? Earlier in the day, the National Weather Service did say that “biblical rainfall amounts” have been reported. So it’s clear that the deluge here has been impressing the experts.

Here's how that deluge looked from space (click for a larger version):

GOES-15 and GOES-13 6.5 µm water vapor animation (Image CIMSS)

Atmospheric rivers are supposed to occur on west facing coasts, but in this case all that water has managed to work its way inland:

A monsoonal flow like this is not unusual in Colorado — during the heart of the summer. But it usually dissipates by late Labor Day. This year it has not. Instead, it has been on steroids.

Add to that an anticyclonic circulation (clockwise) in the Midwest. This has been pushing water vapor into the Front Range region as well.

In other words, two circulation patterns have come together in just the right way and just the right time to draw large amounts of water vapor into Colorado.

Tom's conclusion?

It’s not over yet.