RealScience reports:
The storm was not biblical. It was not a 1,000 year flood – but it might have ranked in the top ten Colorado floods since 1876.
“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. “Every flood event in Colorado has its own unique characteristics,” said Doesken. “But the topography of the Colorado Front Range makes this area particularly vulnerable when the necessary meteorological conditions come together as they did this week.”
It’s an odd manner of tautology. The qualifier “when the necessary conditions” renders the statement true but meaningless. Anywhere will flood when the necessary conditions for flooding are met. Also every flood event, or any event really, has “its own unique characteristics”. These are the sort of safe, meaningless phrases favored by people who feel the need to say something but don’t actually have anything useful to say. Then people will infer whatever they want him to have said and can’t be wrong.
Sorry….that’s Didn’t NOAA say..
continue…
Someone forward this to Harry “I’m Such a Dweeb’ Reid please!!!
CJ
And PS: Didn’t say only 3-5%??? Can Harry Read???
He may have been trying to say that a modest amount of rain on steep rocky ground can lead to extreme flooding in the valleys. Water runs down steep hills fast. As I recall, only a couple of inches of rain in the UK caused major widespread flooding a year or so ago. In the midlands of the Carolinas, two inches of rain from a thunderstorm is unremarkable.
“Every flood event in Colorado has its own unique characteristics,” said Doesken. “But the topography of the Colorado Front Range makes this area particularly vulnerable when the necessary meteorological conditions come together”
Is it just me, or could you accurately say this about anywhere?