FLOOD08183

• County: Summit
• Community: Breckenridge
• Stream Name: Blue River
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Title: Floodplain Information Breckenridge
• Date: 9/1/1974
• Prepared For: Summit County
• Prepared By: Leonard Rice Consulting Water Engineers, Inc.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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7
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of the Blue River in the Breckenridge area lasts for several
weeks and takes many days to reach its peak discharge. The
beginning of the snowmelt is around the first part of r1arch
and the hydrograph does not peak until the middle of June.
For the Breckenridge area,~the-~ate of average peak discharge
in the Blue River is JU~nd has an average buildup of
approximately 46 days prior to the date of peak.

STORM OF RECORD

'1

The peak discharge recorded by the u.S. Geological Survey
on the Blue River near Dillon for the 64 years of record was
1250 cfs and occurred on June 17, 1965. The flow was a com-
bination of snowmelt and, according to local residents in the
area, a high intensity thunderstorm of small areal distribution
centered in a tributary basin above the town. Examination of
the hydrograph for this stolm period, which is shown in Figure
1 as well as preciPitationldat~)recorded at Breckenridge and
Dillon, permits_~nalYSiS~Of the peak discharge.

The Breckenridge guage recorded several days during which
precipitation fell on the basin in a two week period preceding
the date of the discharge. Because of the limited data
on the type of areal distribution of precipitation that fell
in that time period it is possible that the Breckenridg~ga~
'-_ 0_
recorded rainfall in the lower portion of the basin and that
snow could have fallen in the higher elevations. Comparison
of the two weeks of rainfall with the hydrograph of the gage
in the Blue River for the same period of time reveals no
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significant a1ter~:ions, in, the m~a~ ~a~~~ di~~h..arge. The
-discharge of the Blue River continued to rise at a relatively
steady rate.

Interviews with local residents in the area state that
the storm of June 1965 was centered over Spruce Creek, a small
tributary above the town of Breckenridge. Although no official
recording gage was centered in the tributary, residents claim
that approximately 2 to 3 inches fell in a very short time