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Variability of rainfall affecting runoff from a semiarid rangeland watershed
Author(s) -
Osborn H. B.,
Hickok R. B.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr004i001p00199
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , watershed , hydrology (agriculture) , surface runoff , storm , thunderstorm , acre , geography , meteorology , geology , agroforestry , ecology , geotechnical engineering , machine learning , computer science , biology
On the 58‐square‐mile Walnut Gulch watershed in southeastern Arizona, summer precipitation is characterized by intense thunderstorms of limited areal extent; winter precipitation, usually rain, is characterized by low‐intensity storms of wide areal extent. For 11 years of record from 30 recording gages, about 70% of the annual precipitation of 11.22 inches occurred in the summer months June through September. Summer precipitation exceeded winter precipitation in each of the 11 years of record. Average annual precipitation varied from 7.1 to 14.2 inches for the period of record. During the same period, point precipitation varied from slightly under 5 inches to slightly over 20 inches. The lowest annual point precipitation was about 50 to 60% of the highest. Significantly more summer rainfall was recorded on the highest elevations than on the lowest, which indicated an effect of elevation on precipitation. However, the most summer rainfall, for the 11‐year period of record, was recorded near the center of the watershed, which indicated possible topographic influences other than watershed elevation. Annual runoff from Walnut Gulch varied from 0.02 inch (1 acre‐foot per square mile) to 1 inch (53 acre‐feet per square mile). For the same period on a 1‐square‐mile subwatershed, annual runoff varied from 0.02 inch (1 acre‐foot per square mile) to about 6 inches (320 acre‐feet per square miles).