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<br />~"'tg!" <br /> <br />publication was free, we had to be terribly careful to make <br />sure that only a limited number of people ever got copies. <br />Otherwise, we would have gone broke. With a subscrip- <br /> <br />tion system, the rules all change. At last we can tell <br />people what we're doing. So wish us luck and SPREAD <br />TIIE WORD. Extra subscription cards are enclosed. <br /> <br />::l <br /> <br />Research Activities at the Colorado Climate Center since 1996 <br /> <br />A lot has happened in three years. We don't have room <br />here to go into a lot of detail, but here is a brief descrip- <br />tion of selected research projects that we have finished or <br />started since we last wrote in 19%. Several projects have <br />resulted in publications. <br /> <br />Date comoleted <br /> <br />Proiect <br /> <br />June 1996 "The Snow Booklet: A Guide to the <br />Science, Climatology and Measurement of Snow in the <br />United States" by Nolan J. Doesken and Arthur Judson. <br />This is the first actual book published by the Colorado <br />Climate Center. If you like snow and want to learn more <br />about it, you will enjoy this book. It is available here at <br />the Colorado Climate Center for SI5 plus $2.50 shipping <br />and handling (new price effective 9/111999). <br /> <br /> <br />Seot 1996 The Colorado Climate Center co-hosted, <br />along with the National Weather Service, a special work- <br />shop on measuring snow. As a result of this meeting, the <br />National Weather Service prepared a small document, <br />"Snow Measurement Guidelines" which took effect that <br />winter for all National Weather Service professional and <br />volunteer weather observers. <br /> <br />March 1997 "An Evaluation of the Reported January <br />11-12,1997, Montague, New York, 77-lnch, 24-hour <br />Lake-Effect Snowfall" (main report out of print already). <br />Nolan Doesken was selected to a small team of national <br />experts invited to the Tug Hill Plateau in upstate New <br />York to investigate this snowfall extreme. This was truly <br />a remarkably heavy and highly localized snowfall, but <br />after careful examination the report was deemed unofficial <br />since it was based on summing a set of short-interval <br />snowfall totals. The actual depth of snow on the ground <br />increased by 51 inches. Thus, the previous record set at <br />Silver Lake, Colorado, in April 192 I remained intact. <br /> <br />Mav 1997 "Colorado Extreme Storm Precipitation <br />Data Study" by Thomas B. McKee and Nolan 1. Doesken. <br />109 pages. Available for $5 plus postage and handling. <br />The Colorado Climate Center completed a comprehensive <br />study of the history of extreme rainfall events in Colorado. <br />More than 300 stonos were investigated since 1864 that <br />had dropped excessive rainfalls andlor had produced <br />significant flooding. The largest three dozen stonos were <br />identified as those that must be considered in any future <br />study of extreme rainfall impacting high hazard dams and <br />spillways in Colorado. The results of this 2-year study <br />were presented to a committee of experts in Denver on <br />July 17, 1997. It was recommended at that meeting that <br />more might be learned by studying in great deal any <br />future extreme rainfall events in Colorado rather than <br />attempting to reconstruct rainfall patterns from past <br />historic stonos such as the extreme rainfall event of May <br />30-31, 1935. Little did we know that the opportunity was <br />just around the corner. <br /> <br />1997 (July 28 and 29) The priorities and work load of <br />the Colorado Climate Center changed abruptly 011 the <br />evening of July 28 as more than 10 inches of rain fell in a <br />few hours over portions of the City of Fort Collins. The <br />resulting flood claimed 5 lives, remarkably low consider- <br />ing that this was the heaviest rainstorm ever recorded over <br />an wbanized area of Colorado and was one of only about <br />a dozen stonns in Colorado's recorded history that <br />dropped more than ten inches of rain in less than a day. <br /> <br />The very next night, July 29, an even larger storm pro- <br />duced incredible flows on the often-dry Pawnee Creek <br />watershed as 1O-13 inches of rain fell in a few hours in an <br />area north of Stoneham that had also been hard hit by a <br />similar flood back in June I %5. Flood waters washed out <br />several bridges and then inundated the small town of <br />Atwood before passing through Sterling, Colorado during <br />the daylight hours of the 30th. <br /> <br />67 <br />