FLOOD07072

• County: Statewide
• Stream Name: South Platte
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Water and Related Land Resources Management Study Volume IIIC - Appendix A
• Date: 7/14/1980
• Prepared For: South Platte and Tributaries
• Prepared By: CWCB
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

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the Plum Creek peak discharge below the confluence of the East and

West branches was about 30,000 cubic feet per second attentuating

to about 5,500 cubic feet per second at the mouth. On Cherry

Creek a peak value of about 15,000 cubic feet per second was

estimated to have occurred near the mouth while upstream near the

site of the Cherry Creek Dam a peak of 34,000 cubic feet per second

was estimated. The peak values on Cherry Creek were partially

the result of failure of a small dam located in the upper reaches

of the basin. On the South Platte at the Denver gaging station,

the peak discharge was 22,000 cubic feet per second, which was

the largest flood of record prior to the 1965 event (gaging station

established in 1895).

FLOOD OF MAY-JUNE 1935

The flood of 31 May 1935 was caused by a storm centered

over the Kiowa and Bijou Creek basins which empty into the South

Platte near Fort Morgan, Colorado, about 100 miles downstream from

Denver. On Bijou Creek a peak discharge of 144,000 cubic feet

per second was estimated from a drainage area of 230 square miles.

On Kiowa Creek a peak of 110,000 cubic feet per second was esti-

mated from a drainage area of 190 square miles. At Fort Morgan,

which is only a short distance downstream from where these two

tributaries flow into the South Platte River, the estimated dis-

charge was 84,000 cubic feet per second indicating an appreciable

attentuation of the sharp tributary peaks. At the Julesburg

gaging station, located about 30 miles downstream from Fort

Morgan near the Colorado-Nebraska State line, a peak discharge

of 31,300 cubic feet per second was recorded.

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