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TELLURIDE SKI & GOLF COMPANY AND THE SOUTHWESTERN WATER CONSER VA TION DISTRICT PROGRAM--2000-200 I FOR THE TELLURIDE SKI AREA AND UPPER SAN MIGUEL DRAINAGE BASIN The 2000-2001 winter season weather pattern over the Western United States returned to a more normal sequence of weather systems resulting in only slightly below normal precipitation over the region, The first half of November was quite wet with frequent systems moving through the Western San Juan Region. The last half of November and into early December were well below normal in snowfall from minimal infrequcnt weather systems. . The two weeks prior to Christmas saw a return to frequent and ample snowfall from live storm events that moved through the San Juan Mountains. The end of December and nearly the first two weeks of January had a return to more fair skies and little additional snowfall with no seeding opportunities. The weather patterns again changed to allow a succession of five weather systems to move through the region during the remainder of January. The wide swings from wet periods to extended dry periods of weather, coupled with several of the wetter storms hitting only the southern San Juan Mountains, left the Western San Juan's with near normal precipitation along the Southern face and near 80 to 90 % of normal precipitation in the high country and along the Northwestern Basins as the seeding season ended. At the end of this set;.ging season, the total observed precipitation at the Telski site was greater that either of the Lizard Head or Red Mountain Pass precipitation sites and was 13.2% greater than the average of the two mountain pass sites. However, this year the Lizard Head area was seeded by the Dolores Basin seeding program and was likely having a similar increase in precipitation to the Telski site. Consequently, we have included the Lone.Cone Site for similar comparisons. Coincidentally, if the site at Lizard Head was having about a 25% increase in precipitation from the Dolores Seeding Program, the adjusted comparison of the average ofthe Red Mountain and Lizard Head precipitation sites to the Telski site would have shown a 25.3% grater amount at Telski. This compares with a similar comparison for the past two seeding seasons. Western Weather Consultants has completed its fourth season of a 5-year Cloud Seeding Permit for the San Miguel Drainage Basin that was issued in January 1998.