WMOD00453 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

II. EXPERIMENTAL PLAN snow pack added by artificial means actually reaches a stream for storage or transport to a remote con- sumer. Figure 3 depicts-in block diagram form...,.. the elements of the experimental plan. The experimental area chosen is around Steam- boat Springs, Colo. It has relatively high annual precipitation, a mountain ridge-the Park Range- to provide orographic effects, is relatively accessible and is an important source of water-via the Yampa and Green Rivers-to the Colorado River. The primary form of precipitation on the Park Range is snow. The climatology of the valley is shown in table 1; figure 4 depicts freezing level as a function of month as reflected in Grand Junction, Colo., values. Climatological station coverage is good, figure 5, and there are stream gages on the Elk and Yampa Rivers. Storm trajectories are confined largely to the NW-SW quadrant. 7 Network design was predicated on approximately 5-mile station spacing and established access roads. It was later found that all-winter access was much easier than originally assumed and some station redundancy was possible on the Park Range ridge. As finally evolved, the network consists of 15 snow- rate stations, 5 meteorological stations, 1 diffusion test and artificial nuclei generator station, 21 snow- courses, I radar and rawinsoncle station and 1 nuclei count station, figure 6. For diffusion and artificial nuclei generator work, we selected the Emerald Mountain site because of its height (8,300 feet) , accessibility, and alignment with the target area. Emerald Mountain is the local name for what most maps show as Quarry Mountain. Zinc sulphide tracer tests were planned under varying meteorological conditions using two mobile ground detector stations and one aircraft. ANNUAL MEAN DATA CLIMATOLOGICAL INFORMATION FOR: STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO MONTHLY MEAN DATA ELEVATION: 6710 ft. msl ,............... I ........... I .............. I ..., I " I " I " I , I , I \ I , I \ I \ , , I \ I \ I , / \ I \ I , / , I , \ \ \.., u, ug, ep, MONTHLY MEAN MINIMUM TEMP. ( oF) 24 14 5 -I 4 13 25 31 35 41 40 32 MONTHLY LOWEST TEMP, (OF) -2 -26 -38 -44 -48 -34 -15 16 20 27 25 13 MONTHLY MEAN MAXIMUM TEMP, (OF) 62 44 33 29 35 42 54 66 75 B3 81 74 MONTHLY HIGHEST TEMP, (OF) 80 69 64 49 59 65 79 84 92 97 98 90 ANNUAL TOTAL PRECIP, IN INCHES INCHES 40 23.24 ANNUAL SNOWFALL IN INCHES 167.9 30 NUMBER OF DAYS WITH 0.01" OR MORE OF PRECIP, 109 20 ANNUAL LOWEST TEMP, (0 F) -48 10 ANNUAL HIGHEST TEMP. ( OF) 98 o Ocl. Nay Dec - Monthly Toto I Precip, in inches ---- Monthly Snowfall in inches T = Trace of Precip, less than 0.0/" ----... Jon Feb Mar Apr May Jun J I A S Table I.-Steamboat Springs Climafology.