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1.)....I.j.~.. .. occurred that same night in Routt National Forest near Steamboat Springs. Millions of trees were blown down in a matter of minutes by powerful easterly winds cascading over the Park Range from North Park. Most likely, this rare event took place at the very time that the wind direc- tion changed and the gusts increased which had woken us from our fitful sleep. While we had a frightening experi- ence, it could have been so much worse. Several people lost their lives in that blizzard and thousands of caUle and other livestock were lost. 1996-1998 Tom McKee and Nolan Doesken of the Colorado Climate Center were both selected by the Na- tional Research Council to serve on the National Academy of Sciences special panel on climate record: Moderniza- tion of the Cooperative Observer Program. The Colorado Climate Center has been very active over the past 25 years in wolking closely with the National Weather Service to maintain and improve the important climate observing functions provided by volunteer weather observers across the country. The resulting report, "Future of the National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network, " was published by the National Academy Press in 1998. It provides recommendations on what the National Weather Service can and should do to preserve the many wonderful attributes of a low-tech volunteer weather observing network while at the same time creating a viable program to serve the very high-tech needs of the 21st Century. Copies of this report are available from the National Academy Press at http://www.nap.edu. 1997-1999 "Density of Freshly Fallen Snow in the Central Rocky Mountains" by Arthur Judson and Nolan Doesken. As a follow on to "The Snow Booklet, "the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation provided funds to the Colorado Climate Center to complete investigations of variations in both time and space in the density (water content) of freshly fallen snow. Much of the data used in this report were collected and analyzed by Art Judson from his home in Steamboat Springs where he retired after working for many years in Fort Collins as an avalanche scientist for the U.S. Forest Service. This report documents the wide range of snow densities that characterize fresh snow in the Rockies, and proves that the age-old idea that ten inches of fresh snow contains one inch of water can be true but usually isn't. The majority of Rocky Mountain snows are less dense. The results of this study will appear soon in a scientific journal. Copies will be available on request. 1997-1998 EI Nino (Warm phase) 1998-1999 La Nina (Cold phase of the Southern Oscillation). These climatic-oceanographic events seemed to send the whole world into an unprecedented clima- tological frenzy. From a scientific perspective, it was thrilling to observe modem global data collection and analysis in action. Remote sensing technology made it possible for us to watch on our computers, from the friendly confines of our offices, the rapid and expansive warming of the surface of the tropical Pacific Ocean during the summer of 1997 followed by dramatic cooling in 1998. Perhaps even more amazing was the media craze associated with what some will call climatologists' flTSt true success story in predicting temperature and precipita- tion anomalies many months in advance. While you readers have endured two years of"EI Nino, La Nina" mumbo jumbo on the evening news and in almost every newspaper and popular news magazine, we climatologists have tolerated hundreds of phone calls. First came the calls from prying news reporters who honestly believed we knew with certainty what the weather was going to be like for months in advance. We also heard from bnsiness analysts, utility engineers, long range planners, and even school children attempting to undcrtake unique science fair projects. Never have we received so many inquiries about a phenomenon taking place so far away. Never have we appreciated how the entire earth's atmosphere, oceans and land surface all work together to produce our remarkable climate. While the long-range forecasts seemed accurate for many parts of the country, the success in Colorado was only marginal. Winter snow projections for the mountains were mostly wrong. However our first persistently windy winter in many years this past year may well have been accentuated by the cooler than average tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures. 1998-1999 COCO RaHS is born, the Colorado Collaborative Rain and Hail Study. An extensive volun- teer network geared for students, teachers, families and Roinfall Mop for JUly 1998 " S . v .;! :'-1() o '" - S '" S 105.15 105.1 105.05 105 longitude 69