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<br />5 <br /> <br />missing data for those stations with less than 30 complete years of <br />data. An additional requirement was that the gages used to collect <br />precipitation needed to be of comparable accuracy to the HWS standard 8" <br />non-recording raingage. <br />The National Weather Service (NWS) cooperative 1etwork of more than <br />200 climatological stations ended up being the backbone for this <br />analysis. NWS data are typically limited to populated areas and <br />mountain valleys. Therefol^e, other' data sout'ces vlere required to hel p <br />describe mountain precipitation patterns. Snowpack measurements from <br />151 U. S. Department of Agl^iculture Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Sn0\v <br />courses were the primary h'igh elevation data sources. Since snowpack <br />data are only seasonal, a procedure was develop,?d to produce estimates <br />of average annual precipitation from spring snOlvpack readings. This <br />will be described in section IV. <br />Other' data sets which were examined included U. S. Forest Service <br />storage gage data, 1 imited standard ra'ingage and stoloage gage data frol~ <br />the U. S. Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation, and <br />miscellaneous precipitation records from a small number of uni vcrsity, <br />private, and local sources around the state. National Weather Service <br />cooperative weather stations with between 5 and 15 years of data were <br />included for supplemental information. <br />Several potential data sources were lnvestigated but found to be <br />inadequate for inclusion in this analysis. Recordin9 raingage data from <br />the NVlS hourly precipitation networ'k included too much missing data. It <br />underestimated actual precipitation by significant but inconsistent <br />amounts. A similar probler1 was noted "ith the U. S. Forest Service Fire <br />Weather network whi ch is a summer-on ly network. <br />