Identification

Title

Precipitable water characteristics during the 2013 Colorado flood using ground-based GPS measurements

Abstract

During 9-16 September 2013, the Front Range region of Colorado experienced heavy rainfall that resulted in severe flooding. Precipitation totals for the event exceeded 450 mm, damages to public and private properties were estimated to be over USD 2 billion, and nine lives were lost. This study analyzes the characteristics of precipitable water (PW) surrounding the event using 10 years of high-resolution GPS PW data in Boulder, Colorado, which was located within the region of maximum rainfall. PW in Boulder is dominated by seasonal variability with an average summertime maximum of 36 mm. In 2013, the seasonal PW maximum extended into early September and the September monthly mean PW exceeded the 99th percentile of climatology with a value 25% higher than the 40-year climatology. Prior to the flood, around 18: 00 UTC on 8 September, PW rapidly increased from 22 to 32mm and remained around 30mm for the entire event as a result of the nearly saturated atmosphere. The frequency distribution of September PW for Boulder is typically normal, but in 2013 the distribution was bimodal due to a combination of above-average PW values from 1 to 15 September and much drier conditions from 16 to 30 September. The above-normal, near-saturation PW values during the flood were the result of large-scale moisture transport into Colorado from the Tropical Eastern Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. This moisture transport was the product of a stagnating cutoff low over the southwestern United States working in conjunction with an anticyclone located over the southeastern United States. A blocking ridge located over the Canadian Rocky Mountains kept both of the synoptic features in place over the course of several days, which helped to provide continuous moisture to the storm, thus enhancing the accumulated precipitation totals.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75q4znj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact