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<br />I <br />J <br />t <br />I <br />t <br />j <br />I <br />.' <br />I <br />t <br />j <br />t <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />episodes within them. Assuming they were not composed of <br />only short duration episodes, and the data suggests the short <br />episodes are usually found in combination with longer ones, <br />there is a high probability that at least one episode per <br />storm will be of long duration. <br /> <br />These precipitation episodes were found to be similar <br />to those in Colorado Grand Mesa storms with the main differences <br />being that the Arizona episodes were of shorter duration than <br />those in Colorado, but they produced as much precipitation <br />as those in Colorado and within a shorter time. It is hypothesized <br />that a difference in air mass characteristics might be at <br />least part of the reason for the differences. The atmosphere <br />in Arizona storms often indicated periods of instability with <br />convective clouds sometimes embedded within the general cloud <br />mass. In Colorado a more stable atmosphere with long duration <br />periods of stratiform cloud was the rule. <br /> <br />When the very short duration episodes (2 hours or less) <br />were eliminated, half of the remaining episodes had durations <br />of up to 6 hours and 75 percent of them had durations of up <br />to 11 hours. These were significantly longer durations than <br />with the very short durations included. This suggests that <br />once an episode lasts as long as three hours there is a good <br />chance it will last twice that long and that the more organized <br />precipitation periods are likely to continue for several hours. <br /> <br />Most of the storms had more than one episode within them <br />(as many as seven at individual gauges) with the average about <br />three per storm. At the gauge, site that had multiple episodes <br />within a storm, the average time interval between episodes <br /> <br />3-56 <br /> <br />