FLOOD00197

• County: Hinsdale
• Community: Lake City
• Stream Name: Henson Creek
• Title: Reconnaissance Study Henson Creek at Lake City
• Date: 11/1/1991
• Prepared For: Lake City
• Prepared By: US Army Corps of Engineers
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

TABLE 1

HENSON CREEK ANNUAL PEAK FLOWS

YEAR

FLOW (cfs)

DATE

1918
1919
1921
1929
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937

6-11
5-29
6-14
7-25
6-24
6-10
6-10
6-14
5-25
5-15

1180
944
2000-2500 (estimated)
1720
1200
1190
680
995
786
694

The largest flood of record on Henson CreE~k occurred in
mid-June 1921. Th:',s flood resulted when an unusually heavy
snowmelt occurred :',n late May/early June along with 3 days of
extremely heavy ra::.ns in early June. It i.s est:imated that the
1921 peak flow in Henson Creek was between 2,000 and 2,500 cfs.

In October 19~15, the Corps of Engineers, Sacramento
District, developed a 100-year regional snowmelt curve for
mountain regions for the Upper Colorado River basin. The
100-year snowmelt peak flow for 91 square miles: from the Corps
curve is 2,700 cfs.

In an October 1985 consulting engi.neers rElport entitled
"Lake Fork of the Gunnison River and Henson CrElek at Lake City,
Colorado," regional peak flOW-drainage area relationships were
developed for the 10-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year events. The
snowmelt flood peak flows that were estimated for each frequency
event at the Henson Creek gage are as follows:

10-year
50-year
100-year
500-year

1,400 cfs
2,000 cfs
2,300 cfs
3,300 cfs

The 100-yea! difference is within the accuracy for both
regional relationships. However, because of the apparent rarity
of the 1921 flood, the 100-year value of 2,300 cfs was used in
the development of the peak flow-frequency curve for this study.
This curve is shown on Plate 3.

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