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Catchment travel time distributions reflect how precipitation from different storms is stored and mixed as it is transported to the stream. Catchment travel time distributions can be described by the mean travel time and the shape of the distribution around the mean. Whereas mean travel times have been quantified in a range of catchment studies, only rarely has the shape of the distribution been estimated. The shape of the distribution affects both the short‐term and long‐term catchment response to a pulse input of a soluble contaminant. Travel time distributions are usually estimated from conservative tracer concentrations in precipitation and streamflow, which are analyzed using time‐domain convolution or spectral methods. Of these two approaches, spectral methods are better suited to determining the shape of the distribution. Previous spectral analyses of both rainfall and streamflow tracer time series from …