Peak Streamflow Data, Climate Data, and Results from Investigating Hydroclimatic Trends and Climate Change Effects on Peak Streamflow in the Central United States, 1921–2020

Peak-flow frequency analysis is crucial in various water-resources management applications, including floodplain management and critical structure design. Federal guidelines for peak-flow frequency analyses, provided in Bulletin 17C, assume that the statistical properties of the hydrologic processes driving variability in peak flows do not change over time and so the frequency distribution of annual peak flows is stationary. Better understanding of long-term climatic persistence and further consideration of potential climate and land-use changes have caused the assumption of stationarity to be reexamined. This data release contains input data and results of a study investigating hydroclimatic trends in peak streamflow (peak flow) in the Central United States, including nine states (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). Peak flow records from unregulated U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgages were used to evaluate changes over 30-, 50-, 75-, and 100-year trend periods, all ending in water year 2020. This data release contains station lists of the streamgages used in each of the nine states, the peak streamflow input data and peak streamflow analysis results, and the climate input data and climate analysis results. See "Station_Lists.zip" on the landing page for station lists (in text file format) for each state included in the study.