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<br />22 <br /> <br />of curves were found not to be the same value above the mimmum experi- <br />enced flow because regardless of the number of days when base flow and <br />total flow were equal, there were other days elsewhere in the long record <br />having the same range in discharge but with total flow exceeding base flow. <br /> <br />Base-flow duration curves, such as in figure 9, provide an excellent <br />portrayal of basin characteristics (Kunkle, 1962), but do not evaluate chron- <br />ological sequence. This deficiency may be partly overcome by delineating <br />base-flow frequency for continuous periods, such as 7 or 30-days duration <br />in any year. Figure 10 shows a comparison of base-flow frequency curves <br />in comparison with total-flow frequency curves. (See Technical report 2 <br />for procedures in computing low-flow frequency relations.) However nei- <br />ther flow-duration curves for the complete period nor low-flow frequency <br />curves for groups of days indicate that part of the year when these proba- <br />ble base flows are available for use. This deficiency has been overcome <br />in this report by developing duration curves of base flow for each month of <br />the year, as described in the following subsection. <br /> <br />Monthly Base-Flow Duration Curves at Streamflow Stations <br /> <br />Monthly values of base flow for any of 84 gaging stations may be ob- <br />tained from Technical report 6A for each year in the standard base period, <br />which was usually 1923-62. Thus for most of the 84 stations,40 essentially <br />independent experiences of base flow are available for any month. <br /> <br />For each separate month at each separate station, the individual <br />base-flow values were arrayed in order of magnitude and plotted on loga- <br />rithmic probability paper. Figure 11 shows the plot of the 40 arrayed dis- <br />charges for the month of May in the period 1923-62 at station no. 65, Sol- <br />dier Creek near Topeka, Kans. The plotting position of these discharges <br />on the scale of percent-of-time probability is computed from the formula <br />usually used by the Geological Survey of 100M/N+l, where M is the order <br />number of the arrayed discharges with the highest designated as number <br />one and N is the total number of years in the base period. The significance <br />of the data as presented in figure 11 is that, to the extent that experience in <br />the long-term base period is representative of future expectancy, the <br />chance of monthly base flow equalling or exceeding a desired magnitude <br />can be defined. <br />