FLOOD06533

• County: Statewide
• Community: State of Colorado
• Stream Name: All
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan for Colorado
• Date: 12/1/1999
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: Kistner and Associates
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

Colorado Flood Hazard Mitigation Plan -1999

rapid on small (and steep gradient) streams and slow
in large (and flat sloped) streams,

The causes of floods relate directly to the accumula-
tion of water from precip~ation or the failure of man-
made structures, such as dams or levees, Floods
caused by precipitation are further classified as coming
from:

. Rain in a general stonn system

. Rain in a localized intense thunderstonn

. Melting snow

. Rain on melting snow

. Ice jams

Rainfall and melling snow in Colorado's seven river
basins feed four major river systems of the western
United States, These river systems are the Missouri,
Arkansas, Rio Grande, and Colorado river basins,
These basins encompass many small streams and
rivers as shown in Figure 2.2,

109'

108'

101.

106'

.,.

,7'

loa-

107.

106'

loa-

Chapter 2 - 2

Note: One of the recommendations
of this plan is to inventory the struc-
tures and people in Colorado's
floodplain. This inventory, when
completed, will enable planners at
the state and local level of govern-
ments to plan and mitigate the flood
hazard,

-

Precipitation in each basin is related to the seasons
and two major sources of moisture, Summer showers
and thunderstorms that occur from June through Sep-
tember primarily are caused by moisture from the Gulf
of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, During the fall, occa-
sional general rainstorms and thunderstorms occur
from wet and warm cyclonic air masses That move in
from the soulhern Pacific Ocean, Winter and spring

101'

11)4'

tOJ'

102'

'"

1
,
\

.0'

39'

'.
'~
i
.
,rvR
m' 'S'

:
u

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,
,
I
,
,
___I",

102'

105.

104' ltn"

Figure 2-2

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