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3.0 Historic Floods Floods in Crestone are caused by runoff fro. melting snow, rain on melting snow, and rain. The flood season in Crestone extends from May 1 through October 31. A large flood of unknown magnitude occurred on North Crestone Creek in early October of 1911. As the season was early fall, the moist winds from the Paoific had high temperatures. These winds were defleoted upwards by the San Juan Mountains and, upon cooling, deposited much of their moisture in the south western part of the state. The amount of preoipation was influenoed not only by altitude but by the degree of exposure to the storm. As the air currents with less loss of moisture reached the Sangre De Cristo Mountains and were deflected upward, they cooled resulting in heavy precipitation. The Saguache weather station, elevation 7,745, recorded 1.20 inches on Ootober 5, 1911, but no rainfall records for the western slope of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains, where precipitation is believed to be considerably higher, are available. However, there is evidence of severe floods on all streams draining that slope, indicating heavy rainfall (Follansbee and Sawyer). Flood damages at Crestone were estimated at $300,000. A stream gage was installed on North Crestone Creek near Crestone in 1936 and collected data for a total of 46 years of record through 1981 when it was disoontinued. The drainage area above the gage was 11.0 square miles. The elevation of this gage was 8360 feet. From a review of the record, it appears that floods on North Crestone Creek during this period occurred in 1936, 1941, 1942, 1943, and 1973. A stream gage was also installed on Cottonwood Creek near the south edge of 8aca Grande in 1936 but was discontinued until 1967 when it oollected data through 1970, for a total of 5 years of record. The drainage area above the gage was 6.8 square miles. The elevation of the gage was 8340 feet. The maximum peak discharge recorded during this period was 540 cfs on JUly 26. 1968.