WSP08775

• File Number: 8056
• Description: Drought Preparedness
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 1/1/1979
• Author: USGS
• Title: Hydrologic and Human aspects of the 1976-77 Drought
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

~:'\~i+t"
l.~ ~_ ", 'e.' 6 t..e

37

1050

100"

CHRONOLOGY OF THE 1976-77 DROUGHT

950

90'

I
I
~__ OMC~:k_________
,
r
I
,

I
I
r
-1' ,
-------------------1
L___-----

44'

I SOUTH DAKOTA

t----- ---------
r
r

WYOMING f
I
------1

NEBRASKA

-PI'Qi'
'e

40'

COLORADO

EXPLANATION

Region boundary

f(llnsas

MINNESOTA

MjssOWr~'

---~,
,
'-
\
'\

IOWA

,
,
/
,
)
--'!
\
'-.
,
'\
\
v

oDes Moines

KANSAS

o 100 200 KilOMETERS
I I
I I
o 100 MILES

Figure 14. Missouri basin-WRC Region 10 (lower part).

Previous Droughts

Drought is not a rare event in this part of
the Missouri basin. Hoyt (1936, 1938) des-
cribed the drought conditions of the 1930's.
Palmer (1965) tabulated his index values over a
76-year period from 1887 to 1962. His index
shows that drought conditions existed 37 per-
cent of the time in western Kansas and
occurred during 28 different periods. He
classified 8 percent of the months in the 76-
year period as severe drought and 6 percent as
extreme drought. The median duration of
drought is about 4 months, but the average
duration is 12 months. The longest drought
was 99 months from August 1932 to October
1940, but the lowest Palmer index, -6.2,
occurred during the second longest drought, 57
months from June 1952 to February 1957. See
figures 6 and 7 for Palmer index values in 1976
and 1977.

Drought periods of different lengths and
severity occurred in 1952, 1953, and 1954
through 1956. Southwestern Missouri was very
dry from May 1952 through 1956, and one
person aptly dubbed this period "The Big Dry"
because it was worse than the drought of the
1930's.

Precipitation and Runoff

Statewide, precipitation in Iowa from May
through December 1976 was the lowest in 104
years. Iowans claimed that they liked to stand
in the fields and listen to the corn grow, but
one wag said that in 1976 they listened to it
gasp for water! Another said that the rain was
so spotty that one barrel of a double-barreled
shotgun leaning against a fence filled up with
rainwater, but the other barrel stayed dry!
From other reports, the latter story is not as
much of an exaggeration as it first appears to
be.