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Along Colorado's Front Range

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Along Colorado's Front Range 24 A S DISASTER LONG COLORA LONG EARTH F ebruary 2014 TRIKES D O’s Front O’s R www.earthmagazine.org ANGE Colorado National Guard photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicole Manzanares/Released Boulder is one of many towns clustered along Colorado’s Front Range. Terri Cook n early September last year, the weather along Colorado’s Front Big Thompson Range, the urbanized corridor Sterling River Greeley paralleling the eastern slope of Estes Park South Platte Ithe Rocky Mountains, swung from one Evans River extreme to another. The first week of the Lyons St. Vrain River Goodrich month was exceptionally hot and dry, rull Longmont K with high temperatures averaging 7 to Jamestown 9 degrees Celsius above normal. For three teve teve Lefthand Creek S days in a row, the city of Denver matched Boulder or exceeded its record high temperatures, Boulder Creek according to National Weather Service (NWS) data. Golden Aurora tockphoto.com/ S During the second week, rain — ini- Denver tially a welcome relief from the heat ; top: ©i ; top: and drought conditions plaguing much AGI COLORADO of the state — began to fall. With heavy precipitation on both Sept. 9 and 10, the ground quickly became saturated, and still the rain continued. athleen Cantner, Cantner, athleen K By the morning of Sept. 12, the NWS During the second week of September 2013, heavy rains fell on Boulder County, reported that there was a “major flood- parts of which received more than 43 centimeters in just a couple of days. The ottom: ottom: B ing/flash flooding event underway” in foothill towns of Lyons, Estes Park and Jamestown were all severely damaged. www.earthmagazine.org EARTH February 2014 25 the Denver-Boulder area, with “bibli- Boulder, a university town of 100,000 record high of 139.7 millimeters. The cal rainfall amounts” reported in many located 40 kilometers northwest of same station also measured new two- areas in or near the foothills. The unwel- Denver. But on Sept. 12, Boulder’s day (292.6 millimeters) and seven-day come prediction on the Denver-Boulder Cooperative Observer Program (429.3 millimeters) records. Boulder’s area forecast page was for “lots more weather station, which has records average annual precipitation (rain rain” that day. extending back to 1893, measured plus melted snow) is 525.3 millimeters September is typically a dry month the one-day total precipitation at per year, meaning the city received along the Front Range, with average 230.6 millimeters, nearly double the 82 percent of its average annual pre- precipitation of 40.9 millimeters in previous September month-long cipitation in just that one week. Emergency planners had prepared for a short, intense and localized summer storm like the Front Range has expe- rienced many times in the past, but the September storm was very differ- ent, resulting in unexpectedly exten- sive damage. These photos were taken around Boulder. bbott A on L erri Cook and erri Cook T eleased; bottom three: three: eleased; bottom R onner/ B allace allace W gt. gt. S taff S rmy photo by by photo rmy A . S op: U. T 26 EARTH February 2014 www.earthmagazine.org Damage to Front Range homes, as well as roads, bridges, pipes and electrical utilities, may reach $2 billion from the September floods. Piled-up debris pulled from flooded basements was a common site in towns along the Front Range in the weeks following the flooding. NO STRANGER had none of these characteristics, so winds created “upslope” conditions TO FLOODS many of its impacts, which lasted longer that, along with a stalled cold front, Boulder — and the other communities and were much more widespread, came trapped the combined moisture against along the Front Range — are accustomed as a surprise to officials. the foothills, causing the humid air to to flash floods. One of the worst in recent rise, cool, condense and produce heavy history occurred in July 1976 in the Big THE STORM and extensive rainfall. Thompson Canyon about 50 kilometers The unprecedented rainfall came north of Boulder. On the weekend of the courtesy of an unusually persistent, sta- FLOODING IMPACTS state’s centennial celebrations, a stalled tionary weather pattern that funneled The Front Range lies at the interface weather system dumped more than extremely moist air from the Pacific and between the lofty Rocky Mountains and 300 millimeters of rain over a four-hour the Gulf of Mexico toward the Front the vast Great Plains. Along this north- period near Estes Park, creating a 6-meter Range, according to a preliminary report south corridor, a series of east-flowing wall of water that crashed down the Big led by researchers at the CIRES Western drainages tumble from steep, rocky Thompson Canyon, killing 143 people, Water Assessment at the University of canyons, channeling precipitation from destroying 418 homes, and ripping out Colorado at Boulder (CU). Circulation alpine areas to the relatively flat plains, the highway that ran along the river. around an upper-level, low-pressure where the streams spread out and mean- In anticipating future storms, emer- system over the Great Basin drew a der toward Nebraska and Kansas. bbott gency planners and officials had thus strong plume of monsoonal moisture Because of the arid environment, many A focused their preparations on a scenario from the Pacific Ocean toward Colorado. communities are situated alongside these on L similar to that which played out dur- Continued circulation around the low, drainages. With the record and near- ing the Big Thompson storm — a very which was blocked from moving north record precipitation measured along intense but short and localized summer or east by a large dome of high pres- much of the Front Range, the channels erri Cook and erri Cook T event occurring due to a convective sure, drew in additional moisture from swelled dangerously, overtopping dams, ll: A storm system. But the September storm the Gulf of Mexico. Local southeasterly undercutting banks, wiping out roads, www.earthmagazine.org EARTH February 2014 27 The Colorado National Guard evacuated people from can- yon towns that were cut off when floods destroyed roads. bridges and buildings, and mobilizing of the city’s hiking trails suffered sig- and agricultural land, much of it unhar- huge amounts of rocks, sand and silt. nificant to severe damage, and much of vested, located on or near floodplains, The flooding, which tragically killed Boulder’s 182 square kilometers of open particularly along the South Platte River. eight people, was the worst the area land — which span a range of ecosystems, Oil producers in the Denver-Julesburg has experienced in decades. Flood including plains, foothills, montane and Basin were temporarily forced to shut conditions stretched for more than riparian environments — were dramati- down 1,900 wells, and at least two dozen 240 kilometers, from Colorado Springs cally altered. aboveground oil tanks were toppled by to Ft. Collins, washing out an estimated Smaller communities tucked into the the raging floodwaters, spilling at least 320 kilometers of roads and 50 bridges, foothill canyons to the northwest, includ- 43,000 gallons of oil. destroying 1,882 homes, and damag- ing Jamestown, Lyons and Estes Park, the Unusual meteorological conditions, ing another 17,500. Property damages gateway to Rocky Mountain National combined with the Front Range’s dis- alone may exceed $1.3 billion, and total Park, suffered serious, and in some cases tinctive topography, together created a losses could reach $2 billion, according devastating, damage. And many isolated “perfect storm,” the effects of which are to initial estimates by the catastrophe residents — as well as several school still being measured. modeling firm EQECAT, Inc. groups attending a mountain retreat — Located at the mouth of a large river had to be evacuated by helicopter because Cook (www.down2earthscience.com) is canyon and in the center of the precipi- access roads were impassable. a science writer based in Boulder, Colo. tation bull’s-eye, Boulder was one of the On the plains farther east, where Her home is located very close to Bear most affected communities. In addition the swollen tributaries merged, the Creek, which experienced a once-in-500- to extensive damage to human infra- resulting high flows severely damaged year flooding event that nearly reached eleased structure, 150 kilometers, or 64 percent, homes, wastewater treatment plants her front porch. R ida/ N on V . K EDITOR’s NOTE gt. Joseph gt. S hat follows are two stories about changes observed in the weeks following the floods. On page 29, follow the first-person account of geologist Geoff Plumlee and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological uard photos by by photos uard W Survey as they toured flood-ravaged areas, examined how the floods and landslides changed the G Front Range, and sampled water and soil for possible contaminants. Then turn to page 35 to read an account of ational N the ecological effects observed firsthand by contributor Terri Cook, who accompanied scientists and interpretive naturalists into the field on several occasions after the flooding. oth: Colorado oth: Colorado B 28 EARTH February 2014 www.earthmagazine.org WHEN WATER, GRAVITY AND GEOLOGY COLLIDE Firsthand observations of the impacts of the 2013 Colorado floods eleased Geoff Plumlee R tumpf/ S . M round almost every bend research group at USGS in Denver has Not surprisingly, the same was true in the road on our tour of assessed the environmental and related when the heavy rains and subsequent olfram olfram the Colorado Front Range health implications of hazardous mate- floods happened in our own backyard. W gt. gt. and points downstream rials produced by many past disasters, This is a firsthand account of what we S in the weeks after the September such as the airborne dusts kicked up observed: the power of nature and the ech.
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