abstracts: hydrology 227 



ing the amount of winter stream flow, so that it becomes necessary 

 to study temperature not only as a means of arriving at the true flow 

 but also in making comparisons between the low flow of other winter 

 periods. W. G. H. 



HYDROLOGY.— r/ie Ohio Valley flood of March to April, 1913. 

 {Including comparisons with some earlier floods.) A. H. Horton 

 and H. J. Jackson. U. S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 

 No. 334. Pp. 96, with maps, hydrographs, tables, and views. 1913. 



The Ohio River has not failed to overflow its banks and flood large 

 areas of bottom land at some point along its course in every year since 

 1873 and, very probably, in every year previous to 1873. Since 1873 

 there have been three floods of special prominence — that of February, 

 1884, that of INIarch to April, 1907, and, last and greatest, that of March 

 to April, 1913. 



Of the forty-six floods on record at Cincinnati, Ohio, above the 

 danger line, only three occurred outside of the four months, January, 

 February, March and April; namety, one in December, 1847, one in 

 May, 1865, and the third in August, 1875. 



The flood of March to April, 1913, was caused by heavy precipitation 

 over the entire Ohio Basin. Over a large portion of northern Ohio the 

 total precipitation for the five-day period March 23-27, was over ten 

 inches. Floods were produced and practically all the tributaries, and 

 stages far above all previous floods were reached on the northern 

 Tributaries in Indiana and Ohio, causing inconceivable damage and 

 destruction in these two states and throughout the entire length of the 

 Ohio River. Previous record stages were exceeded on the Ohio from 

 St. Marys, West Virginia, to Maysville, Kentucky, at Madison and 

 Mt. Vernon, Indiana, and at Shawneetown and Cairo, Illinois. 



The flood of March to April, 1907, was caused by heavy rains in 

 the northern part of the basin and over the headwaters above Pitts- 

 burgh. The melting of a hea-vy fall of snow on the tributaries above 

 Pittsburgh, in conjunction with rain, increased the runoff materially. 

 The stage at Pittsburgh exceeded all records. 



The flood of February, 1884, was caused by a warm rain throughout 

 the basin, which fell on a heavy accumulation of snow resulting from a 

 winter of large snowfall and unusually low temperatures. Record 

 stages were reached at all points on the Ohio which have been exceeded 

 only by the 1913 flood, and at Pittsburgh by the 1907 flood. 



To have kept the 1913 flood below the danger line at Wheeling, 

 West Virginia, storage would have to have been provided for 44,800 



