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<br />011 01 ':'J'" <br />_ tJ J. t . <br /> <br />animals and their habitats, on the time and effort required for snow <br />removal - whether the snow in question results from un seeded or seeded <br />clouds. <br /> <br />Klazura states: <br /> <br />"In the central Colorado Rockies there is about six times as <br />much precipitation observed at the crest (10,600 feet m.s.l.) <br />than at an average western slope base (5,000 feet m.s.l.). <br />All of the significant increase in west slope precipitation <br />with respect to increased elevation occurs between 7,000 and <br />10,600 feet m.s.l. (average 7.5 inches per 1,000 feet). The <br />base-to-crest precipitation ratio varies from 1:3.5 to 1:9.5 <br />depending on the upper-air wind and temperature conditions <br />[12J." [8J <br /> <br />Figure 2 from a report by Crow [9J: <br /> <br />"* * * graphically shows the large differences between <br />averages for groupings of low, middle, and high elevation <br />stations. Note that the high level stations average about <br />three times more precipitation than the low-level group. <br /> <br />"A very 1 arge amount of the vari at i on in average prec i pitat i on <br />for winter or summer seasons is accounted for by elevation <br />when small areas with similar exposure characteristics are <br />considered separately. One investigator found that 80 to <br />96 percent of the variation was explained for the October <br />through April period for the mountain subdivisions which he <br />defined [13, 14J." [8] <br /> <br />The influence of the aspect of the mountain barrier upon precipitation <br />accumulations as indicated dramatically by the information in table 1 <br />taken from a report by Hartzell and Crow [10J. <br /> <br />Table 1. - Average precipitation accumulations for stations <br />in San Juans for four winters (1971 through 1975) <br /> <br />Station <br /> <br />Elevation <br />(feet) <br /> <br />Average <br />Precipitation <br />(inches) <br /> <br />Aspect <br /> <br />Ouray <br />Wolf Creek Chain St. <br />Soward Ranch <br />Serri Park <br />Wolf Creek East <br />Wolf Creek Summit <br />Red Mount a in <br />Trout Creek <br /> <br />7740 <br />7970 <br />9000 <br />9060 <br />9250 <br />10,810 <br />11,020 <br />11,125 <br /> <br />15.52 <br />22.54 <br />9.94 <br />21. 97 <br />20.39 <br />37.17 <br />27.08 <br />25.13 <br /> <br />Northwest slope <br />Southwest slope <br />North slope <br />South slope <br />Northeast slope <br />Southwest slope <br />Northwest slope <br />North slope <br /> <br />10 <br />