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Rain spotters keep study alive I Fortc:omn.. ~ '. , I e r Volunteers keep rain study going THURSDAY OctOber 8, 1995' , e or _....... ""- When Nolan Doesken set up 8 netWOrk o{volun- teet' weather IlpottetB this summer. he had DO idea how suac:essful it would be. Now be's talling the Col- onodoCa/Jabanatiw _""" Hail Study "the project that wouldn't die" - and ticking off countless agen- cies that need ita relIulta. Long after the p_ stopped formally cOllect- ing data,llII18.teur weather enthuaiaBta - from school children to retirees - con- tinued to look skyward. "We were amazed that these ob6ervers kept at it after the summer and helped US document the heaviest stonn of sum. mer.~ ~n said (){ the torrents of rain that fell on the monring of Sept. 1. -rbe National Weather Service 68W it on radar but couldn't believe it. When OIlY" rain reports came in, we were able to confirm the pattern we identified," Sp."...t by lao, year'. Dood. Doe8ken, assistant state cliInatologist with the Colorado Climate Cen. ter at Colorado State Uni- versity, .anted to estab- lish a weather-spotti.ng network with one gabon every square mile. "Our normal network of official weather stations is sometimes 20 miles apart, and thWllientorms can miss the statiolUl entirely," heaaid. The project baa been 10 8uCCdBful that Doesken P'1d Jim WUBhboru. chief Meteorologist with Moun- taiQ StateS Weather Ser- vices in Fort Collina. plan to train volunteers thia winter in .mow-measuring ............ The data gathered by volunteers will help to a~t electronic wes.th. er data BUd will help fore-. casters pinpoint severe weather more preciaely, Wirehborn Aid -No matter bow sophia.. ticated the el-." get in the future. there'. no substitute for the raintaJl llIDOUDtI OUT apoUenI call e Natul'lll dl-urs Costly C&taStrophes in Fort CoIlitlS and larimlfCounl'J,wtIt1 date. ewnt and dam. age costs: -July 28, 1997- Flood, $21.1 million .Julv23,1996- HaillWind,S11.5rnil/ion .June 24, 1992- HaWFIood. $45 million .May 15-18, 1991 - Hail, 54 million 1ocI&aIa: Wef*n l~'. --...... inthesaid. . The value of the project reaches to the insurance industry, disaster relief agencies and water and sewer utilities. ":From e. water use stand- (lOiJ!t, it's a useful tool," Said Dennis Bode, water resources mazutger of Fort Collins Utilities. After a heavy summer storm, he said, "we could pull up a map and look at rainfall around town, giving us an idee. of water demands for the next couple of days." Fred Sibley, hazard mit- igation planner at the state Office of Emergency Management, which Nnd. ed the project, said he hopes that in the future the study will help avert multimillion-dollar iDBur- anee claims like the ones that a hailstorm in July 1990 brought to Denver. That storm cost S650 mil. lion. making it the ID08t expensive weather-related incident in Colorado. Doesken said he alDl08t has more volunteers than he can handle rigbt now, but be haves to work out the bugs and create a model for the l'dt of the country. "It~ the kind of thing that a cou-ple of local vol- unteers, I!n1pported with some funding &om a loc::aI utility or waerever, and given a bit of e.dYice from WI, couJd let up," he said. "We have lots of ideas for the nut year. 50 we're hopeful we'll get an oppor- tunity to continue and 0.. pond. .