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<br />~ <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />major flood-producing deluge on the evening of July 28th. The contribution of each rainfall <br />episode needed to be documented in order to understand the subsequent flood. <br /> <br />;.l <br />[I <br />\-: <br /> <br />The first step was to identity all sites where automated gauges had collected rainfall totals for <br />hourly or even shorter intervals. A total of 19 recording gauges were found with credible <br />precipitation measurements for the entire period from the aftemoon of July 27 through the <br />evening of July 28. Figure 3 shows the locations of the 14 sites closest to Fort Collins. <br />Several of these sites were not in the area hard hit by the flooding rains, but several were. <br />Hourly precipitation rain gauge locations and totals for these stations are shown in Table 1 <br />and 2, respectively. A graph of accumulated precipitation for several of these sites is <br />presented in Figure 4. These reports provided an excellent picture of the time history of <br />rainfa1l during the two-day period of interest. <br /> <br />Most of these hourly measurements came from tipping bucket rain gauges. This is a very <br />common type of gauge for recording rainfall data electronically. However, a characteristic of <br />this type of gauge is a tendency to report less rain than what actually fell, particularly during <br />periods ofvery intense rainfall. Fortunately, one observer (site F) also operated a manual <br />gauge directly beside his recording gauge. At that site, the recording gauge reported about <br />20"/0 less rainfall than the manual gauge. A correction was made to account for this <br />difference. There is no guarantee, however, that the correction was the same at each site. <br />Observed values were used directly without correction for all other sites. <br /> <br />Table 1. <br />Ust of H:lur1y Precilitaion Locations for the Fort Collins Study <br /> <br />9!!!! DescriDlion <br />A U.s. Forest Service, Redstone Canyon <br />B We!iJ. Fort Collins WE4.er llstrict, Laporte <br />C CoIaado Slate Uriversily, A1mosphetic Science Departmert, Foc1hills <br /> Carl'1JUS <br />0 CoIaado Slate Uliversily, Agric1JhraI Engineering Research center <br /> (AERC) <br />E CoIaado Slate Uliversily, Main CanlxJS <br />F Fort Collins Wiler Department, Wakefield Oive . <br />G Northern Colaado Wiler COOseIvancy District, Loveland <br />H South Fort Coltins <br />I City or Fort Collins, CoIlindale Golf Course <br />J Mou1lain Stales Weather Services <br />K City or Fort Collins, Resou'ce Recovery Fam <br />L CoIaado Slate Uliversily, HortlaJItll'e Farm <br />M CoIoracIo State Uriversily, Joqicullll'8l Rn 6 :..J I DeveIopmenI and <br /> Education center (ARDEC) <br />N Forensic Melea'Ology Associates, Inc. <br /> <br />11 <br />