While the deluge is unprecedented in the historic record
Except that it isn't.
"As is typical of Colorado storms, some parts of the state were hard hit and others were untouched. Still, this storm is ranking in the top ten extreme flooding events since Colorado statehood," said Nolan Doesken, State Climatologist at CSU. "It isn't yet as extreme or widespread as the June 1965 floods or as dramatic as the 1935 floods but it ranks right up there among some of the worst.”
Among the worst, according to Climate Center data, occurred in May 1904, October 1911, June 1921, May 1935, September 1938, May 1955, June 1965, May 1969, October 1970, July 1976, July 1981, and, of course, the Spring Creek Flood of July 1997 that ravaged Fort Collins and the CSU campus.
news.colostate.edu
Top 10 since statehood. Statehood was in 1875. 138 years. 10 events. That's more than one every 14 years.
Its not clear where in the top 10 it is, but even if you only consider the events called worse, then you have two of those, plus this one, for 3 in 138 years, or one every 46 years. |
