By Justin M. Louen, U.S. Geological Survey. Fact Sheet 2017–3020, April 2017.
The network
The USGS and federal, state and local partners run a long-term hydrologic monitoring network in Kansas: 216 streamgages sending real-time data, checked through the year by field measurements of streamflow. Each year's conditions are judged against each site's full record.
A water year (WY) runs from October 1 to September 30 and is named for the year it ends in. The records serve water supply, flood forecasting, reservoir operations, irrigation, bridge and culvert design, ecological monitoring and more.
Statewide, WY 2016
- Streamflow and runoff: mostly normal (25th–75th percentile) to above normal (76th–90th).
- Precipitation: near to above average, 110–200 percent of normal, mostly from large storms from April to September 2016.
- Drought: recovery continued from the 2012 peak; from mid-May to mid-June, no part of the state was in drought, for the first time since July 2010.
- Runoff: just above the normal range for 115 years of record.
Streamflow through the year
Figure 1: monthly streamflow percentiles. Red and orange: below normal; green: normal; blue and black: above normal. USGS.
- October 2015: mostly normal to below normal (10th–24th), and much below normal (under the 10th) in the Solomon, Smoky Hill–Saline, Lower Arkansas and Cimarron basins of western Kansas.
- December 2015: recovery, especially in the east, with much above normal (over the 90th) flows.
- Spring: widespread rain brought most streams to normal.
- Summer: intense storms, especially in the northwest and south-central Kansas around Wichita, pushed flows to much above normal there.
- September 2016: normal to above normal everywhere but the southwest corner.
Four streamgages
Figure 2: the four streamgages used as examples. Base from the USGS National Elevation Dataset.
| River (gage) | WY 2016 |
|---|---|
| Saline River near Russell (06867000) | below normal through April, tracking the lowest cumulative flow of record; storms lifted it above normal in May; September storms took it much above normal, finishing above the 75th percentile. September's flood peaked at 19,300 cubic feet per second — the highest since 1995 and fifth highest in 65 years |
| Arkansas River at Syracuse (07138000) | mostly normal all year. Its water, from Colorado, is often diverted for irrigation in the west and flood control around Wichita. Average flow was 198.1 cubic feet per second, against just 2.76 in WY 2013, the lowest cumulative flow in 99 years |
| Neosho River near Iola (07183000) | regulated by reservoirs upstream; mostly normal or above; September storms and reservoir releases finished the year much above normal; at or above the 75th percentile of 104 years for much of the year |
| Ninnescah River near Peck (07145500) | a tributary of the Arkansas; normal to much above normal, below normal only in October and November 2015. Major flooding in September 2016 peaked at 40,300 cubic feet per second — second highest in 78 years, highest since 1923. Cumulative flow finished above the 75th percentile for the first time since 2010 |
The Saline River near Russell: 7-day average flow (top) and cumulative flow (bottom, black) for WY 2016, against the normal range (green), the median, the lowest year (2013) and the highest (1951). Drainage area 1,502 square miles. USGS.
Runoff by basin
Runoff — streamflow per unit of land — is calculated for each drainage basin. It reflects rain and streamflow, but not rain alone, because groundwater recharge and reservoirs can hold water back.
Figure 3: quarterly runoff percentiles, WY 2016. USGS.
- East and central Kansas: mostly normal, with above and much above normal where intense storms hit.
- Western Kansas: much below normal through March 2016, above normal in places by September 2016 — a notable improvement on WY 2014 and 2015, though those years also had above-average rain.
Figure 4: statewide runoff, WY 1986–2016, with the 25th–75th percentile band from 115 years of record. USGS.
The total: 3.99 inches, just above the 75th percentile (3.92 inches), a 4.5-year recurrence interval — continuing the long-standing pattern of recovery to normal or better after runs of drought years.
Sources
Based on Summary of Hydrologic Conditions in Kansas, Water Year 2016, by Justin M. Louen, USGS Fact Sheet 2017–3020, U.S. Geological Survey; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The figures are taken from the fact sheet's PDF, which the import had left out. Data: USGS WaterWatch and the National Water Information System; NOAA's National Climatic Data Center; the U.S. Drought Monitor. The fact sheet's Figure 3 labels its second quarter "January–March 2015"; it is 2016.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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