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mid - April, for example, the Yampa flow at Maybell was 1830 cfs, less than 70% of the <br />average. The one anomaly was the White River gage near Meeker, where flow was <br />above average. In the Colorado basin, reservoir storage was generally near 90% of <br />capacity in April. Some were even full. Streamflow, on the other hand was well below <br />average. At several stations, the Colorado, Fryingpan, and Roaring Fork were all <br />between 40% and 50% of the longterm mean. <br />In the South Platte basin, reservoirs were all below normal and, with rare exceptions, <br />received little additional water. Flow at the Kersey gage, downstream of Denver, was no <br />more than 500 cfs, half the average for mid - April, and the river was already under an <br />1871 call (i.e., any water right junior to this was out of priority and could not divert). <br />Some of the major reservoirs, like Cheesman and Carter Lake were at less than 50% of <br />full volume. Horsetooth Reservoir was at less than 30 %. The North Platte was in slightly <br />better shape, because its snowpack had been consistently above that of the rest of the <br />state. <br />In the Arkansas basin, the situation was similar. Storage in the basin averaged about 40% <br />of normal and flows in both the upper and lower river were some of the lowest ever <br />recorded. By April 1 the river was under an 1884 call, slightly better than the 1874 call <br />in April 1978, another low water year. <br />B. Reservoir and Streamflow Conditions in Mid - Summer <br />1. Streamflow <br />Streamflow conditions in June reflected the combination of low snowpack linked with the <br />dry spring. The worst situation was found throughout the San Juan and was typified by <br />Navajo Reservoir inflow, which was only 9 % of normal. In the Dolores, Mancos, Rio <br />Grande and lower Arkansas basins the situation was similar with flows measured as small <br />percentages of normal. The state's "best" conditions, while still quite dismal, were found <br />in the tributaries of the upper Colorado River and the northern tributaries of the South <br />Platte River. Here, flow volumes were 40% to 47% of average. <br />The streamflow conditions for the entire state are captured in Figure II.3 which traces the <br />Streamflow Index from July 1999 to October 2002. The Colorado index (red line on the <br />graph) is an average of the streamflow indices for all streamgages in the state with 30 or <br />more years of data. The figure shows the low flows of both the summers of 2000 and <br />2001 and the extremely low flows of 2002. For a specific example of a typical stream, <br />comparing average and low flow hydrographs, see Appendix B. <br />r -� <br />