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show the access route to the laboratory under winter and summer conditions. Figure 19 shows the crest of Elk Mountain (11,162 ft msl) in southern Wyoming during early February 1966. This is an important base for the field experimentation being carried out by the University of Wyoming. Additional experimental studies have been carried out in the Park Range of northwestern Colorado, sub-area #,5, by Bollay, Associates. Figure 20 shows their raaar- radi.osonde station on top of Mount Harris. Two of the sub-areas have been given primary attention as a location for an initial pilot project. They are: (1) The San Juan Mountains and (2) The Upper Basin of the Colorado River. The San Juan area includes drainage areas from Lake Fork to the New Mexico border and is shown in Figure 21. The Upper BCll:iiu im:luJ.::8 dl~'aL:lag.:: ar-eas frunl Williams Fork to Troublesome Creek and is shown in Figure 22. The recommendations of these two areas is based upon the following consideration::;; 1. Both basins make a substantial contribution to the flow of the water in the Coloracb River Basin. This is true in terms of either water supplied per unit area or of total flow. 2. It is highly desirable that sub-areas of the Colorado River Basin located near the eastern extremity of,the Basin serve as initial pilot projects. This will allow experimental-type cloud physics and weather modification programs to be carried out in upwind areas of the Colorado River Basin without the hinderance of upwind seeding. This becomes extremely important when one considers that within 10 to 15 years, weather modification operations will probably be routinely carried out for large portions of this and other basins. Consequently, the opportunity to explore and learn in a natural environment may cease to exist. Develop- ment of operational-type' programs, east to west across the Basin, would maximize the interval of time available for continued development of seeding technology under uncontaminated conditions. 3. Substantial operational facilities, in addition to regular ESSA, USGS, SCS, etc., facilities are available in support of the design e:fforts and future operational programs in the~:e areas. Streamflow and precipitation data for the Upper Basin area are available for many years from the For est and Range Experiment Station. The data include high elevation precipitation and weather date, collected at the Fr a ser Experimental Station and at the Avalan:::he Research Station at Berthoud Pass. Additional precipitation profile data for Berthoud Pass have been collected by Colorado State University. In the case of the San Juan, four years of precipitation data for Wolf Creek Pass3.re available through the Atmospheric Science group at Colorado State University. 4. The use of these two specific orographic barriers will provide a test of cloud seeding operations under widely differing topographic conditions. A large section of the San Juan Range, for example, can frequently be nearly parallel to the airflow from important storms. The Upper Basin, in contrast, is primarily perpendicular to airflow in major storms. Weather modification models being developed at Colorado State University indicate that the method of operations and the results to be expected from weather mo dification opera- tions Sh01,lld be highly variable as a function of topographic profile and orientation. 5. As weather modification becomes a major endeavor, water right conflicts in the immediate vicinity and in more distant locations could develop. These two areas could serve very adequately to test a wide variety of such problems. 6. Pilot programs in these two areas could also have important beneficial effects on '\.vater- sheds outside the Colorado River Basin. Seeding operations could affect the Rio Grande Basin, an area consistently in need of increased water supplies, when seeding is carried out for the -San Juans. The South Platte and North Platte basins cQuld also be affected from seeding for the Upper Basin. The trans diversion of water into the Big Thompson system from the Upper Basin could have additional value. These pos- sibilities of beneficial effects downwind of the Colorado River Basin could adequately be tested by the use of these two specific areas. 7. In the case of the Upper Basin of the Colorado River, the complications introduced from access restrictions to the wilderness< areas is minimized in comparison to those of other areas. 8. The two areas proposed are large enough to properly permit determination of atmospheric water balances. These determinations hold promise of providing a very important method of monitoring basin water supply. 9. The Park Range, for which extensive meteorological observations have been made during the past four years, could serve as an excellent control area for an Upper Basin seeding target. It is upwind of the Upper Basin and the terrain of the two basins .is quit.:: simil&T (Figure 23). 10. Considerations of the physical model describing the potential for weather modifica- tion and the results from the Climax and Wolf Creek experiments indicate that the San Juan area should have the greatest potential for water augmentation. This results from the warmer average cloud temperatures and a rapid lifting of the air mass over the San Juan Range which produces strong vertical rn.otiol1.s. 37