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California StreamStats

By StreamStats

StreamStats for California was developed in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Forest Service.

California StreamStats provides peak-flow statistics with annual exceedance probabilities of 50, 20, 10, 4, 2, 1, 0.5, and 0.2 percent. These peak flows have recurrence intervals of 2-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, 100-, 200-, and 500-year floods. Two reports document the regression equations used in StreamStats for estimating peak flows. The report by Gotvald and others (2012) presents equations applicable throughout California except for the southern desert region. Equations from the report by Thomas and others (1997) are available for southern desert region of California. These reports present the regression equations used to estimate peak flows, document the errors associated with the estimates, and describe the methods used to develop the equations and to measure the basin characteristics used in the equations.

Thomas and others (1997) did not develop a regression equation for the 0.2 percent probability peak flow. In areas where these equations are used, the 0.2 percent probability peak flow is determined by extrapolating the frequency curve based on a method described on page 14 in the report:

Click on this link to obtain general information on the California application, as well as specific sources and computation methods for basin characteristics.

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