Streamflow is the volume of water flowing past a certain point on a waterway at any given time of day. Heavy rains and snowmelt can produce runoff at a rate that exceeds the drainage capacity of streams, which results in flooding. Landslides occur as soil and rock are over saturated by excess runoff, causing mass … Read more
Discharge… such an impersonal and flatly technical term for something so dynamic. It’s really just a description of how much water flows in a channel. Flow expressed in CFS or cubic feet per second over a period of time can teach you a lot about a river, from how it swells during spring runoff to … Read more
Precipitation in the form of snowfall plays the dominant role in year-to-year streamflow variability in the Uncompahgre River Watershed, but air temperature also has a significant impact. In the spring, the air temperature rises, snowmelt begins, and streamflow increases. This generally begins when nighttime temperatures stay at or above freezing (see blue line in the … Read more
