Saturday, August 23, 2008

Storms

You'd think this would be easier to find than it is....

For Colorado:
2-yr storm: 0.71" in 1 hour, or 0.83" in 2 hours, or 0.91" in 3 hours, or 1.05" in 6 hours, or 1.58" in 24 hours
5-yr storm: 1.38" in 6 hours or 1.99" in 24 hours
10-yr storm: 1.59" in 6 hours or 2.27" in 24 hours
25-yr storm: 1.90" in 6 hours or 2.65" in 24 hours
50-yr storm: 2.19" in 6 hours or 2.95" in 24 hours
100-yr storm: 1.86" in 1 hour, or 2.39" in 6 hours, or 3.35" in 24 hours

For East half of Texas:
2-yr storm: 1.72" in 1 hour, or 2.16" in 2 hours, or 2.32" in 3 hours, or 2.67" in 6 hours, or 3.44" in 24 hours
5-yr storm: 3.56" in 6 hours or 4.99" in 24 hours
10-yr storm: 4.21" in 6 hours or 6.10" in 24 hours
25-yr storm: 5.14" in 6 hours, or 7.64" in 24 hours
50-yr storm: 5.94" in 6 hours or 8.87" in 24 hours
100-yr storm: 4.37" in 1 hour, or 6.85" in 6 hours, or 10.20" in 24 hours

You'll notice that a Colorado 100-year storm is roughly equivalent to a Texas 2-year storm. This explains why when I moved down here, it would rain and I thought I should buy a boat or something because we were all going to float away.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't get the numbers but I'm taking it that you get much more flash floods down there then what we get up here.
Yes this is me stating the obvious.

Anonymous said...

cool! I want to do a comparison for all the states now!!! That would be a fun project!

While I was in Illinois my family found out that my area of interest in engineering is drainage. They all thought I should come fix their drainage problems (ha, ha; I'm not that smart yet)! They had a big flood in Brocton and had to pump out water for a week.

Jon said...

Yeah, we got more rain in an average April, where I grew up, than we get in a year in Denver.

Can't say I miss the mold and mildew, but the trees sure stayed a lot greener, there.