Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Flood Summary for the Denver-Metro Area <br /> <br />3.0 Flood Summary for the Denver-Metro <br />Area <br /> <br />r <br /> <br />The information for this section was taken almost entirely from an on-line <br />document written by Kevin Stewart with the UDFCD (Urban Drainage <br />and Flood Control District) Floodplain Management Program and published <br />in 1997. This document can be found on the Internet at <br />http://www.udfcd.org/cover97.htrn. <br /> <br />Although the Denver-Metro region was not declared a disaster area during <br />the 1997 flood season, it did experience its worst flooding in 10 years <br />between May 23 and September 4, 1997. While the rest of the state and the <br />nation were focused on the devastating events in Fort Collins and other <br />disaster counties, Denver had just come off of a 23-day dry spell that was <br />followed by 18 days of significant precipitation and flood potential. This <br />section chronicles the most notable events in the Denver-Metro area during <br />the 1997 flood season. <br /> <br />May <br /> <br />The first of many flood-related events of the summer occurred on Friday, <br />May 23, near 56th and Broadway, when a 66-inch water main ruptured, <br />inundating businesses and residential areas along both sides of Interstate 25 <br />in that area. <br /> <br />July <br /> <br />Denver received an official 5.60 inches of rainfall during this month-the <br />second wettest July in Denver's 126-year record. In contrast, the average <br />rainfall for Denver in July is just under 2 inches. <br /> <br />On July 19, a severe thunderstorm in northeast Denver and northwest <br />Aurora produced 3.83 inches of rain in less than 1 hour. This accumulation <br />exceeded the official Denver I-hour record of 2.2 inches set in 1921. In <br />addition to the record-setting rains, this area also received significant <br />amounts of sizable hail---some stones were as large as 1.25 inches in <br />diameter. <br /> <br />As a result of this extraordinary precipitation, Westerly Creek nearly <br />overtopped Montview Boulevard in east Denver. Westerly Creek is a <br />tributary to Sand Creek, which exceeded its gage record at Brighton Road in <br />Commerce City by 590 cubic feet per second (ds). This new gage record of <br />3,350 ds was exceeded again twice by July 30. The July 19 storm also caused <br />US Highway 36 to close after 4 inches of rain fell in Broomfield in the eastern <br />part of the metropolitan area. <br /> <br />d479/chap3.doc 08/12/98 <br /> <br />3-1 <br />