Electrical Power for Valdez and the Copper River Basin-1981

April. The winds tend to follow the contours of the terrain and, thus,adjacent areas can have average winds of opposite direction. The followinqis the average fastest 1 minute wind speed for the period of record.AVERAGE WIND SPEED (MPH)JanFebMarAprMavJunJul~gSepOctNovDec2325252520181819192n2627Storms:Because of the dominating maritime influence, thunder and hail stormsrarely occur in the study area. ~wever, the area is subject to fall andwinter storms of heavy precipitation intensities. These storms arecyclonic in nature and are generated by the semipermanent, Aleutian lowpressure system. This cyclogenesis takes place as a result of the coldflow of southeasterly air from Asia, which generates a wave on the polarfront. These storms move eastward from their point of origin into theGulf of Alaska, where they cause high winds and low ceilings for a periodof 2 to 3 days. Storms of this nature usually cause copious amounts ofprecipitatio~ to fallon the coastal mountain ranges.STREAMFLOWRunoff characteristics for the study area vary substantially betweenthe coastal and interior regions. Tn the coastal region, the maritimeinfluence areatly increases the runoff per square mile and also changesthe ti~ing of high flood flows from those experienced in the interiorregion. While flood peaks do occur in May and June, due to snowmelt, theyearly maximum peaks generally center around the month of September.Streamflow records were available for several streams, in the studyarea. In all, a total of five streams were used for alternating flows.Two streams in the immediate vicinity of Valdez which have been gagedby the U.S. Geological Survey are Lowe River and Solomon Gulch. Inaddition, several other streams between Valdez and Glennallen have hadstreamflows recorded by the USGS. Two of these, Klutina River andTonsina River, are close to sites considered in the present study. Thereare discharqe data for each station and some measurements for chemicalconstituents and water temperature. The recorded monthly runoff for theA-5