WMOD00314

• Project Name: Uintah Ecology Project
• Title: Potential Ecological Impacts of Snowpack Augmentation in the Uintah Mountains, Utah
• Date: 4/20/1981
• State: UT
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

station at 3,200 m (10,500 ft) and the Ashley-Twin Lakes station at

3,200 m (10,500 ft), both near the headwaters of Ashley Creek north of

Vernal. Although annual precipitation in the Uintas averages 2.5 - 7.5

em less per year during the period 1973-78 than duing the decade im-

mediately preceding, the data nevertheless suggest that Jeppson et al.

(1968) may have overestimated precipitation at high elevations in the

Uintas.

The storage gage data also suggest that maximum annual preeipi-
. !;

tation is not dropped at the highest elevations in the Uintas. Although

there are 16 precipitation storage gage stations above 3,048 m (10,000

ft) in the range, only th~ee of them have a longterm average of over 89

em (35 in) of precipitation per year. In contrast, seven stations at

elevations below 3,048 m (10,000 ft.) have a longterm average of over

88.9cm (35 in) of precipitation.

ELEVATION AND PRECIPITATION

In order to relate precipitation to elevation, we have regressed

average annual precipitation at 44 stations for the period 1973-78

against elevation. The predictive equation for the linear regression is

as follows:

Y = 1.0 + .025 X

Where Yis annual precipitation in cm and X is elevation in m. The

model predicts the following precipitation values for specific eleva-

tions.

20

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