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<br /> <br />Warning: How Much Is Enough? <br /> <br />BY DAVE KNAPP <br /> <br />In the aftermath of widespread flash <br />flooding in the Big Thompson River <br />Canyon, reports conflicted as to <br />whether a faulty remote radar <br />transmitter may have cost the Denver <br />forecaster on duty some precision in <br />pinpointing severe weather and might <br />also have slowed his work. <br />Unstable and moist air aloft triggered <br />the freakish rains of 11 ~ inches near <br /> <br />Loveland July 31,1976, which killed at <br />least 103 persons, injured 265 and left <br />200 on the missing list. Property <br />damage was expected to exceed $30 <br />million. <br />Falling. in. a I6-hour period, the <br />heaviest ci~~'npours fell'in th';,' upper <br />part of the canyon, which stretches <br />slightly more than 20 miles from near <br />Estes Park through the southern <br /> <br />Although Estes Park had only 4 <br />inches of rain, the deluge in the canyon <br />area approximated Estes Park's annual <br />average rainfall of 16 inches, a <br />meteorologist at the National Weather <br />Service (NWS) in Denver said. <br />"The rains came from an isolated <br />group of thunderstorms, not just one," <br />Marshall Grace, meteorologist. in- <br />charge of the Qenver office, said. <br /> <br />21 <br />