WMOD00527

• Title: Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting for Improving Reservoir Operations
• Date: 4/1/1995
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

3. ASSESSMENT OF HOW METEOROLOGICAL APPLIED RESEARCH
MIGHT IMPROVE RECLAMATION'S WATER OPERATIONS

3.1 Questionnaire on Meteorological Support

Reclamation meteorologists at the TSC (Technical Service Center) are interested in the
opinions of water operations personnel and managers, among others, regarding priorities for
future applied meteorological research. The TSC meteorologists should pursue research of
greatest benefit to Reclamation needs. Accordingly, a questionnaire was sent out to several
personnel involved in Reclamation's water operations, and to their chiefs. A copy of the
questionnaire is provided in the appendix.

The questionnaire contained five questions regarding the relative importance of
meteorological support for watersheds affecting Reclamation reservoirs and river system
operations, or areas that use Reclamation-furnished water. Briefly, these five questions
addressed:

1. Better QPFs (quantitative precipitation forecasts).

2. Better estimates of snowpack water content accumulation above Reclamation reservoirs.

3. Improved estimates of Reclamation reservoir evaporation.

4. Providing farmers with daily crop evapotranspiration estimates to aid their water
application decisions.

5. Providing daily estimates of rainfall and snowfall accumulation and areal distribution
using NEXRAD radar observations.

Twenty-six Reclamation personnel responded to the questionnaire by indicating their opinions
about the five questions (two did not answer question No.4, one answered only question
No.4, and one gave only a brief written comment). Table 6 lists individual rankings of
questions included in the questionnaire on meteorological support for questionnaires that
were returned with no more than one question unanswered. The number of returned
questionnaires with answered questions ranged from two for both the UC (Upper Colorado)
and LC (Lower Colorado) Regions, three for the PN (Pacific Northwest) Region, seven for the
MP (Mid-Pacific) Region, to a maximum often from the GP (Great Plains) Region. Obviously,
sample sizes of two or three are not sufficient to draw any significant conclusions for those
regIons.

Table 7 provides a summary of mean rating responses to the questions by region and in total.
The highest mean rating was the MP Region's 4.4 for question No.1 (better QPFs). This
rating is not surprising because the northern California area frequently experiences heavy
precipitation events during the winter season (November through April) where much of the
precipitation falls as rain, resulting in rapid runoff into the reservoir and river systems. The
other regions gave slightly more importance to better seasonal snowpack water content
estimates.

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