Black Hills Area Floods - 1991 to 2000 Completed

Widespread wet conditions prevailed throughout much of the Black Hills area for several years during the 1990s with sustained high flows occurring in many area streams (Driscoll and Carter, 2001).  Most of the flooding during the 1990s generally was not severe, however.  A peak of record flow of 8,270 ft³/s occurred along Horsehead Creek (station 06400875) during 1991, prior to the onset of the especially wet conditions.  Relatively large precipitation totals were recorded for many stations in May, and heavy rains caused relatively large flows during May 8–9, 1995, for many stream in the northern Black Hills (table Biggest Peaks).  Peaks of record flow were recorded at four stations along Whitewood Creek and relatively large peak flows occurred along Whitewood Creek during several other years within the 1990s. 

References

Driscoll, D.G., and Carter, J.M., 2001, Hydrologic conditions and budgets for the Black Hills of South Dakota, through water year 1998: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report 01–4226, 143 p.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2008, The Rapid City flood of 1972—historic Black Hills floods, accessed December 12, 2008, at  https://www.weather.gov/unr/events.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2009, National Water Information System (NWISWeb)—Peak streamflow for South Dakota: U.S. Geological Survey database, http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/sd/nwis/peak.

On June 14, 1996, a peak flow of 16,900 ft³/s was recorded along Alkali Creek east of Sturgis.  A smaller peak flow of 6,910 ft³/s was recorded on May 30, 1996, for station 06408500 along Spring Creek; however, the only larger flow recorded for this station occurred June 10, 1972 (13,400 ft³/s).