FLOOD10416

• County: Statewide
• Title: Historical Perspectives on Colorado Drought
• Date: 12/1/2003
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: HDR
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

Historical Perspectivos on Colorado Drought

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A clear way to merge the two data bases in Figures 21 and 22 can be seen in Table 7
Note thai the EI Nino, or red periods. coincides with periods of above nannal
precipitation in the Colorado river basins. On the other hand, the La Nina, or blue
spikes, coincides with the dry periods or decades in the Colorado River basins. lbis
apparent relationship is rcncctivc of an apparent cause-effect relationship.
Additional work will be required to answer the questions posed by this relationship
but it may hold a promising means of anticipating above or below water yields in
river basins before the start orthe Water Year.

Table 7 Comparison of the Number of Annual Basin Precipitation +/- 2" 01
Average/Decode Compared to decodol EI Nino and La Nino Avg. MEI

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B
2
2
2
2
8

A
1
2
o
1
4

B
1
1
o
2
4

A
3
3
2
6
4

B
o
1
o
o
1

A
o
5
o
2
7

B
1
2
4
4

A
o
o
o
1

B
5
3
4
o
2

A
1
o
2
1
4

B
2
4
5
5
16

A
o
2
1
o
3

11

Colorado
Arkansas
Rio Grande
Total
Difference

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hold?

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Drought: what might

Impacts of

to

Economic implications

\-Vhile the implications of drought in Colorado are numerous and have the potential
affect nearly every aspect of life in the state in some manner. the most quantifiable
and well-defined consequences are economic in nature. A memorandum. dated Apri
30.2002. ....'as sent from the Office of State Planning and Budgeting to Governor
Owens (1lart 2002). The purpose of the memo was to .....provide an economic
impact estimate for the current drought in Colorado as per the State Drought
Mitigation and Response Plan:'

At the time. the authors were .....not able to provide a thorough examination oflhe
impacts of the drought on Colorado's economy because there is little slatistical data
available at [that] point to analyze the impacts. lienee this memorandum provides an
overview of the possible impacts:' Despite the fact that this memo was clearly

Page 26

paper

HDA Engineering. loc.
Printed 00 30% post-consumer recycled conlent

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MEI Oecadal Avg.
* Note that the WY 2002.2003 values arc estimated

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