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<br />Historical Perspectivos on Colorado Drought <br /> <br /> <br />Tbe History and Futul'8 of Colorado DrolJ!lht <br /> <br /> <br />A look at the past <br /> <br />The history of drought in Colorado can be traced through the analysis of two <br />important data records. First is the modem, or instrumentation, record consisting of <br />actual measurements of climate variables at various locations throughout the state. <br />This record generally dates from the present back to the late 19d1 century. <br /> <br />Trees can grow <br />to be hundreds <br />to thousands yg <br />old and can <br />contain arnually- <br />rgsolved records <br />01 climate fa centuries to rrillenia <br /> <br />Second is the paleoclimatic record. primarily derived from the analysis of tree rings, <br />and extending backwards through history for sc"eral hundred 10 over a thousand <br />years. \Vc will begin this section with a review urthe major droughts urthe 20th <br />century, followed by a description of paleoclimatic, specifically tree ring, data <br />analyses and a summary of major drought periods throughout the past 2000 years. <br /> <br />Drought is clearly a common occurrence in Colorado, but droughts rarely encompass <br />the entire state at any given lime. Key points regarding Colorado drought are as <br />follows: <br /> <br />less) with <br /> <br />stale have <br />than 80% of <br /> <br />The most significant droughts of the instrumented period, or since the turn of the past <br />century are listed in Table I. Each drought period is characterized by when it <br />occurred, the worst years of the drought and the portion of the state where the <br />drought was worst <br /> <br />Woody Guthrie once <br />sang, <br /> <br />"This old world is a <br />hard world. for a dust <br />bowl refugee." <br /> <br />Page 2 <br /> <br />The most common droughts are of short duration (6 months or <br />aerial extents that vary with the seasons. <br />Multi-year droughts occur infrequently. <br />Precipitation data indicate that most weather stations across the <br />experienced two or more consecutive years of prc..'Cipitation less <br />average afew times during the 201h century. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />periods of the modern or Instrumented era <br /> <br /> <br />HDA Engineering, Inc. <br />Printed on 30% posl-consumer recycled conlent paper <br /> <br />Significant drought <br /> <br />Table <br /> <br />