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Reporting Stations (SAWRS) provide a widely varying schedule of observa- tions from Rifle, Durango, Aspen, Gunnison, Montrose, Lamar, Leadville, Hayden, Cortez, Salida, Craig, and Fort Collins. With the exception of Hayden and Cortez, some precipitation amounts are available from these stations. The Fort Collins observations, taken every two hours, are phoned to WSFO Denver. None of these surface observation points are in the Big Thompson Canyon. Figure 2 shows the aviation observing points in Colorado. Cooperative and Paid Observers--A large part of the observations needed in the NWS hydrologic, fire weather, and public service programs are provided by cooperative and paid observers. The Colorado Amateur Weather Net has 48 weather observing sites. These stations report local weather conditions only once each morning and were of no benefit in the warning situation. Fifteen of the 48 stations are in the Platte drainage basin and the one at Estes Park is in the Big Thompson watershed. None of the stations were in the area of heaviest rainfall. There are 37 fire weather observing stations in Colorado. The observations, which include 24-hour precipitation amounts, are made at 1:00 p.m. daily during the fire season. The observations are distributed on the fire weather teletype circuit serving Colorado, Wyoming, and western South Dakota. These reports also were of no benefit in warnings of the flash flood since the storm developed and the flood passed between observing times. Cooperative or paid observers provide the 28 rainfall reports which make up the bulk of the precipitation input used by WSFO Denver and the Kansas City River Forecast Center in forecasting for the Platte drainage area in Colorado. As shown in figure 3, none of these reports are in the Big Thompson or Cache la Poudre basins. Reports from automated data sources--Figure 4 shows the locations of the 19 river stage reporting points in the Platte drainage area. Ten of these are automated; nine must be read manually. None of these regular reporting points are in the Big Thompson or Cache la Poudre basins. There is a state-owned gage on the lower portion of the Cache la Poudre River that is telemetered into the home of a resident of Ft. Collins. This gage was used as a source of information by WSFO Denver on the night of the flood, but did not contribute information about the Big Thompson River. A start toward more complete automation of the Colorado hydrologic network has been made by installing 16 Automatic Hydrologic Observing Stations (AROS). Two of the installations, river gages at Orodell and Julesburg, are interrogated by telephone. These two reporting gages are used routinely by WSFO Denver. Fourteen installations use radio to send the data through the GOES satellite and then ground relay to WSFO Denver. Figure 5 shows the AROS locations. These 14 installations, termed AROS/S, 5