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I I I I I 1 I I, I I I I I , I I I I I V. HAIL DISTRIBUTION Weatherwise, we are always at the mercy of large-scale weather patterns. If a large-scale upper air and surface weather pattern persists, there develops a persistent response in local weather conditions. Some of the factors influencing locally persistent weather patterns have been discussed beforei important among them are: lmv-Ievelmoisture advecting into a region, sufficiently high surface temperatures, convergence features such as fronts and upper troughs and the frequency of jet stream maxima overhead. This year there was a persistent high pressure ridge centered over the Mountain states and Great Basin. With the upper ridge to the ~lest of Western Kansas, excessively high amounts of low-level moisture were fed into the region and, like last year, greater than normal low-level moisture frequently_drifted into the plains of eastern Colorado creating favorable conditions for early afternoon thunderstorm development. Storm movements then were steered by upper winds more to southeasterly and when such storms became very severe, the storms' , right turning' tendency often drove them through our target area on a southeast or south-southeast track. This was also a year in which we had more hail insurance claims recorded than last year, our previous record year in that category. Once again a new record was set inside the WKWM target area for crop-hail damage insurance claims. However, unlike last year we did not have a record number of hail days. Unfortunately, the analyses of the hail claim data will have to be done,later as an addendum to this report for reasons related to in the Foreword about our computer malfunction and publication deadline. We can offer a few reasons why we suffered. this second of two consecutive year higher hail damage claims: (1) There were a greater than normal number of severe storm days in which the storms tended to be more difficult to seed properly and for which seeding capability was not sufficient to contend with the situation. (2) Higher than average amount of crop insurance liability. This was the third season of abnormally high Imv level moisture. Dew points which would normally be seen in Eastern Kansas remained here throughout the summer and could be found well west into Eastern Colorado. The High Plains of Eastern Colorado are a favorite breeding ground for summertime severe storms. Generally, as storms move east out of Colorado they move into significantly greater concentrations of moisture thereby adding considerably to the energy they possess. This year,-with persistently high moisture already present in Colorado and persistently higher than normal maximum daily surface temperatures, storms which moved into our region were frequently full-blown severe storms upon arrival. One 22