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<br />Abstract <br /> <br />T~e sierra cooperative pilot Project (SCPP) was a ten year <br />wintertime cloud modification research program dedicated to <br />assessing the potential for increasing snowpack by cloud seeding <br />in the Sierra Nevada. Based on some initial exploration of the <br />cloud types and their characteristics, it was noticed that the <br />shallow widespread cold orographic cloud contained substantial <br />regions of supercoolded liquid water. These clouds often were <br />linked wit~ fronts and thus there was interest in predicting <br />frontal activity and its associated liquid water. A two season <br />(1985-86 and 1986-87) exploratorf forecast experiment was <br />planned, conducted, and evaluated using both old and new <br />verification techniques. It was shown that considerable skill <br />was present in forecasting frontal type and the associated <br />concentration, onset, and duration of super-cooled liquid water. <br />A derivative of the study was the ability to determine the <br />importa~ce, as assessed by the forecaster, of the various <br />~uantitative forecast inputs to the final forecast. For all <br />weather conditions, the three most important inputs were <br />satellite i~ages, ID1C numerical guidance, and real-time liquid <br />water values from a research radiometer. It appears that one <br />may ~e able to improve both the ~~ality and validity of the <br />precipitation forecasts on the west coast of the United States <br />wit~ proper data inputs and effort. <br /> <br />2 <br />