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percent increase in the computed virgin flow, The mountains in Colorado provide approximately 80 percent of this water supply , . 1 2 augmentat10n potent1a . The mountainous areas in Colorado produce most of the State's annual water supply,3 Most of this water supply originates from the springtime melting of seasonal snowpack efficiently stored in the alpine and sub-alpine watersheds where winter precipitation amounts are high and evapotranspiration losses are low due to colder temperatures (see Figure 2). Summer precipitation usually does not provide a significant contribution to the total runoff,4 The high elevation (above 9,000 feet MSL-Mean Sea Level) watersheds are located on mountain barriers where winter oro- graphic clouds frequently occur. These mountain barriers above 9,000 feet MSL are the target areas for most winter cloud seeding programs, The mountainous terrain above 9,000 feet MSL in Colorado comprises approximately 20 percent of the total area of the State, Applying wintertime cloud seeding technology over some of these small areas to significantly augment the water supply is scien- tifically feasible. Not only do these mountain barriers serve as a natural mechanism to induce precipitation from cloud systems that pass over them, but they are a necessary feature in seeding cloud systems that have a potential for augmentation by the current wintertime seeding technology. The winds in a suitable weather system disperse ground-released seeding materials upwards over the mountain slopes and into the cloud systems that naturally form on and over these barriers. This orographic-type cloud system has been identified as the most favorably responsive type of cloud to the current wintertime seeding technology.l An encouraging fact concerning the orographic-type of cloud system is that it occurs during the lifetime of nearly every wintertime 5 weather system that passes through Colorado. -4- J I