There has been tremendous change in the channel of the Lamoille river since the flood of 1927. This photo of the river highlights the section just north of Milton, VT, along the I-89 corridor. In the historical photo, there is either no dam or if it one is in place it barely restricts river flow. Above the dam site there is a meandering channel and below the dam site there is clear rapids at a constriction. In both the 2004 and the Google Earth image, the dam in Milton significantly restricts flow leading to a very wide slow channel above the dam and controlled flow (no rapids) below the dam. In the historical photo, much of the land north of the dam site is agricultural but in both modern photos the channel has expanded to cover much of that land and much of the remaining land has become reforested.

The variability within the peak discharge set is far greater than the average flow. This makes sense because peak flows are subject to far more stochasticity through single random weather events and by definition the peak flow measures one moment in time. A rain on snow event can create an exceptionally high peak while the average flow for the year takes into account a broader sample size. Peak discharge represents weather while average discharge is a better representation of climate. There is still plenty of variability (ie droughts) year by year but it is less extreme. By looking at the 1927 flood, while the peak discharge was far larger than a typical year, the average discharge from a year likely higher than a normal year but not by the same magnitude as the flood level. Floods in the northeast have always been scary and unpredictable events while the rivers overall follow a relatively predictable patterns dependent on broad climate trends.