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. . a reliable estimate of the curve number for an S.C.S. peak flow analysis cannot be made. \ \ tt V'l 'S '1 uJG\~ ~' 1 )l- ":i t\l' \ \.~i.,\"~ ~_~",,,J)' ~ L ,)., V. RAINFALL PEAK FLOW POTENTIAL To evaluate the rainfall peak flow potential for the area, precipitation records corresponding to peak flow dates were examined. For each year of streamflow record on the South Arkansas River, the rainfall occurring on the peak flow date and for two days prior was collected. Salida is the , closest long term weather station to the study area. However, for certain periods when records from the Salida Station were not available, records from the next closest station, i.e. Buena Vista, were utilized. This data is presented in Table-l. A review of Table-l shows that rainfall most likely caused the peak flows occurring after July 15. However, these peak flows attributed to rainfall are typically lower than those caused by snowmelt. Flood history from newspaper articles and interviews with the area resi- dEnts also supports the conclusion that peak flows in the study area are caused by snowmelt rather than rainfall, The flood history recounted in the previous study indicates that the highest flow documented (since 1920's) occurred in 1957 and was caused by snowmelt. It is our opinion that the available stream gaging data adequately represents the potential for peak flows resulting from both rainfall and snowmelt. There is no data available to support major flood potential from cloudburst rainfall in the study area. VI. STREAM GAGE DATA UPDATE The streamflow records used to develop peak flow-area-frequency curves presented in Figure-l were updated to include records after 1975. Records for 1976, 1977, and 1978 were collected for this study to review the peak -5-