WSP03609

• File Number: 8407
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 7/11/1984
• Author: Joe Tom Wood
• Title: Tunnel Vision - An Analysis of River Call Data in the South Platte River Basin
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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questions stated above.

The author's two analyses relate to prer

cipitation data and to virgin streamflow data.

Has P~eeipitation in the South PZatte Basin Ine~eased?

Ten long-term weather stations in the South Platte River

Basin were chosen for analysis. These ten gages, located on

Figure 2, represent four mountain, two foothills, and four plain~

weather stations, as follows:

1. Bailey,
2. Boulder,
3, Cheesman,
4, Iilenver AP,
5. ]j:stes park,
6. Port Collins,
7. Fort Morgan,
8. Georgetown,
9. Julesburg, and
10. Sterling.

pri9r to initiating climatic analyses, missing precipita-

tion data,for five of the above weather stations were calculate~

by use of a double-mass correlation between the station with a

missing record(s) and the five stations with complete records for

the entire 1941-l981 period.

Table 1 summarizes the annual precipitation data for each of

the ten stations. At the bottom of Table 1 are 4l-year averages

of precipitation for each of the ten gages, together with

1941-1963 and 1964-1981 averages for each gage. These com-

parative ,verages indicate to the author that very little dif-

ference exists between the two periods, insofar as overall basin

precipitation is concerned. In fact, the earlier period,

1941-1963, was somewhat wetter than the latter period.

If one totals the yearly precipitation values for all ten

stations to obtain a representation as to the overall climatic

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