PUB00083

• Year: 1997
• Title: Historical Dry and Wet Periods in Colorado ‎(Draft Copy)‎
• CWCB Section: Water Conservation & Drought Planning
• Author: McKee, Doesken, Kleist
• Description: Analysis tool used to describe both drought and wet events for periods in Colorado.
• Publications - Doc Type: Tech Report

Table of Contents

Page

1.0 Introduction ............. ..... ................ ....... ......... .......... ........ ............. ..... ...................

2.0 Precipitation and Snowpack Data .......................................................................... 4

3.0 Precipitation and Seasonality in Colorado .............................................................. 6

3.1

Seasons..................................................................................................... .

6

3.2

Elevation................................................................................................... .

9

3.3

L d '1 ...
arge 11I y precipitatIOn.............................................................................

10

4.0 Definition of Dry (Drought) and Wet Periods ........................,............................... 11

5.0 Drought and Wet Periods Occurrence and Description........................................... 16

5.1 Precipitation.................................................... ........................................... 16

5.2 Snowpack and streamflow.......................................................................... 23

6.0 Summary and Conc1usions..................................................................................... 26

7.0 References... ............................ ..................................... .......... ..... .......... ..... ........... 29

Appendix A. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for all Colorado stations
for 3,6, 12,24 and 48 months....................................................................

Appendix B. April 1 Standardized Snow Index (SSI) for all Colorado Drainage
basins for 1, 2, 4, and 8 years. ....................................................................

Appendix C. Historic Observed Strewnflow (ST) for selected Colorado locations

in each basin..... ...................................................... ................ ....... .............

Appendix D. Reconstructed Streamflow (ST) for a limited time period .................

.

Appendix E. Severe droughts and intense wet periods for 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 month

time scale....................,.........................................,....................................