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<br />Table 6. - Listing of the 11 storms for which the Albany, NY, volunteer (snow spotter) network was partially or <br />fully deployed during the 1995-96 winter and level II radar data are also available. This list is based on the <br />start/stop times in the snow board data furnished by the Albany WFO combined with the availability of radar data. <br /> <br /> Start (Zulu) Stop (Zulu) Network <br />Storm YYMMDD HH YYMMDD HH Activation <br />1 951201 06 951201 18 Partial <br />2 951209 08 951210 04 Full <br />3 951214 11 951215 02 Partial <br />4 951219 16 951221 01 Full <br />5 960102 15 960104 04 Full <br />6 960107 16 960108 21* Partial <br />7 960112 16 960113 13 Full <br />8 960216 16 960217 07 Full <br />9 960305 07 960306 01 Full <br />10 960307 10 960308 22** Full <br />11 960409 20 960410 16 Partial <br />* - no snow board observations between 05 and 12 Z on January 8,1996 <br />** - no snow board observations between 04 and 11 Z on March 8, 1996 <br /> <br />Observations with melting snow noted were rejected during the editing process, as were snow board <br />measurements with observed wind drifting or scouring, or even suspected wind effects because of strong <br />winds. A single exception was made for the "Blizzard of '96," which occurred on January 7-8, 1996. <br />Strong winds occurred during this massive storm, but the data have been retained because this unusual <br />storm holds special interest. However, John Quinlan has cautioned that snow board observations from <br />this storm should be used with discretion. <br /> <br />A total of 106 snow spotters were equipped with snow boards, rulers, and plastic, 4-inch diameter Clear <br />Vu Model 1100 rain gages for obtaining core samples from the snow boards. These samples were melted <br />and measured to the nearest 0.01 inch SWE with each gage's graduated inner tube. Snow observations <br />listed as "trace" have been assumed to represent 0.004 inch SWE in the following analysis to make the <br />data set more compatible with those from Cleveland and Denver, where gage SWE data were resolved <br />to the nearest 0.005 inch. <br /> <br />Examination of the entire Albany data set revealed that several spotters never made measurements, and <br />several more made a limited number of observations over the entire winter. The maximum number of <br />Albany hourly observations was 113 (John Quinlan's home). But actually, no single observer made <br />observations during all storms. Less than 10 observing sites had valid measurements during a number <br />of the storms. The limited number of valid measurements at many sites is partially because only a small <br />portion of the network was activated during some storms, and partially a matter of the editing process. <br /> <br />All sites without at least 31 hours of observations over the winter (the next smallest value was 23 hours) <br />were eliminated. This decision resulted in 47 remaining sites at a variety of ranges and azimuths. <br /> <br />For estimation of the optimi2;ed Ze-S relation for the Albany area, a grouping of 14 sites was used between <br />15 to 105 degrees azimuth from the radar and 20 to 40 km in range. All available data were used from <br />the 11 storms of table 6, resulting in 736 data pairs plotted on figure 4. <br /> <br />17 <br />