Cowskin Basin
Sedgwick County, Kansas
On November 1, 1998, a slow moving storm system dropped very heavy rainfall over portions of Sedgwick County ( 24 hour rainfall image ~35K). This resulted in flooding that caused damage to many homes in West Wichita. Since that time, the National Weather Service in Wichita, has been working on a method to provide advanced warning to residents affected by flooding of the Cowskin Creek, and its tributaries. The Cowskin Creek basin, includes the smaller tributaries of the Calfskin Creek and Dry Creek in Western Sedgwick County.
The National Weather Service, in cooperation with the City of Wichita, Sedgwick County and the United States Geological Survey, developed and installed an Automated Local Flood Warning System (ALERT) for the Cowskin Creek Basin. This flood warning system was designed to help mitigate future flood threats.
The Cowskin Creek, located across Western Sedgwick County, has a history of flooding, which can sometimes result in a serious threat to life and property. Urban expansion has modified the drainage basin, so that the creek can undergo extensive flooding with as little as six inches of rain, and flooding with a danger to vehicles with as little as three inches of rain.
The ALERT project is necessary and essential to further the mission of the NWS/NOAA, in that, it will provide stage and rainfall data, gaging the hydrologic activity in the Cowskin Basin, which is needed to produce specific forecasts for residents along the Cowskin Creek.
The system which was developed, resulted in seven rainfall gages, and four river stage gages, distributed throughout the Cowskin Creek basin. Two of the rainfall/river stage gages report data directly to the USGS via satellite. The remaining gages report, as needed, to the National Weather Service in Wichita. The data is then transmitted to the River Forecast Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for inclusion into river forecast models.
For a clickable map of the Cowskin Basin, with links to the latest river stage data, click here (~90K).
When significant rainfall, and or river rises occur within the Cowskin Creek basin, there may be updated information on the Arkansas-Red River Basin River Forecast Center web page.
