Laserfiche WebLink
35 <br />To illustrate, pre-Flaming Gorge base flow was higher than the post-dam flow for 20 <br />days (out of 182) during the normal water years, and for 11 days during the wet years <br />(Figures A7 and A8). After the construction of Flaming Gorge Dam, these lowland <br />runoff spikes occurred less frequently, probably as a result of their storage during <br />February and March. <br />Some fairly large differences in base flow between the pre- and post-dam periods <br />were also observed in the Yampa River. These differences could be partially the result of <br />our selection process. This possibility seems most likely for the wet year pre-dam base <br />flow, which was actually lower than the base flow during the dry year. Although <br />somewhat counterintuitive, it is not uncommon for rivers to experience drier-than-normal <br />base flows during a wetter-than-normal water year. A second possible cause for the <br />differences may be climatic; the post-Flaming Gorge period having been slightly wetter <br />than the pre-dam period in the Yampa River system. <br />Runoff period <br />Average daily discharges in the pre-dam Green River were higher in all water <br />year types than during the post-dam period, although the differences were greater during <br />wet and normal years (Table 4, Figures Al-A6, A10-A12). Differences in peak <br />discharges between pre-and post-Flaming Gorge were even larger, but the same pattern <br />was observed (Table 5). In the Yampa River, differences between pre- and post-Flaming <br />Gorge runoff hydrographs were more subtle. During the representative normal water