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Water Quest
10. Droughts in Colorado's History
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This timeline explores major droughts throughout Colorado's past.
1276 CE
Drought in the Mesa Verde region
1276 CE
Ancestral Pueblo people throughout the southwestern United States had faced droughts before: a fifty-year drought in the mid-1100s led to the decline ...
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1898 CE
Drought in southwestern Colorado
1898 CE
A 7-year drought in southwestern Colorado began, the worst on record for the Durango area.
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1930 CE
Drought in the Eastern Plains
1930 CE
The most widespread, longest-lasting, and famous drought in Colorado began. The drought, which contributed to the Dust Bowl, lasted the entire followi...
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1950 CE
Drought in the whole state
1950 CE
A 6-year long drought began, affecting most of the state. For parts of the Front Range, this drought was worse than during the Dust Bowl years.
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1977 CE
Driest winter in Colorado
1977 CE
Colorado’s driest winter, despite a March blizzard that piled snowdrifts up to 12 feet high. Dust storms across the Eastern Plains damaged hundreds of...
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1981 CE
Colorado Drought Response Plan and the Water Availability Task Force
1981 CE
An extremely dry year led to the creation of the Colorado Drought Response Plan and the Water Availability Task Force. The Water Availability Task For...
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2002 CE
Colorado’s driest year on record.
2002 CE
A warm and dry spring with few storms led to very low reservoirs and water restrictions in the cities. What made 2002 unusual was that so much of the ...
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