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III. 1995 SPRING/SUMMER FLOOD EVENTS Introduction Flood Threat '95 was the title chosen by the Colorado Flood Task Force and television and radio stations alike as Colorado braced for what appeared to be the most serious flooding in 10 years (and possible record flooding statewide) from the melting of one of the state's largest recorded snowpacks. Colorado didn't have particularly unusual winter weather in 1994-95, at least until mid-April. At that point the snowpack was well on its way to being below average. There were concerns about possible drought. However, the wet spring that began in mid-April refused to leave the state until early to mid-June, causing an excess accumulation of wet snow in many of the state's river basins. At a time when the snow that was already on the ground should have been melting, not only was that snow remaining frozen, but new snow was accumulating on top of it which resulted in extremely high (1200%) snowpack percentages. But we got lucky!! When our warmest temperatures of the snowmelt flood season occurred on June 14-16 (3 days in the 90's), cooler weather came to the rescue with a record low high temperature of 59 degrees at Grand Junction on June 17. This cooling trend moderated the snowmelt across Colorado. When hot weather returned in July, many of the state's mountain watersheds did not have enough snowpack left to cause serious flood problems. (Residents of the Roaring Fork River and Clear Creek valleys would certainly dispute that!) I . Prior to the spring runoff season, the CWCB developed a model "Pre-Disaster Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan" for use by local governments. Buena Vista, Poncha Springs, Pitkin County, Frisco, and Summit County used parts of the plan prior to high water in their communities. A number of communities began their own efforts at preparing for the flooding which they anticipated. Unfortunately other communities did not prepare quite as well as they should have. 1995 Floodinf! During the entire period from mid-May to mid-July there was high water somewhere in each Colorado's four major river basins (South Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande and Colorado). Depending on the time and on the specific stream reach, the high water was attributable to thunderstorms, general rainfall, snowmelt, rain on snow and failure of "dams" of snow and ice or debris. There were flows ranging from minor nuisance flows of a 2-year frequency all the way to 100-year flows. Small drainages that are normally dry and large rivers all experienced high water.