WSPC02282

• File Number: 8200.700
• Description: Colorado River Basin General Publications - Augmentation-Weather Modification
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/1983
• Author: Lynn A Sherretz
• Title: Comparison of the Potential of Cloud Seeding to Enhance Mountain Snowpack in Colorado During Dry Normal and Wet Winters
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

003475

It is easier to identify dry and wet winters when they are ranked by
percent of long-term water content. These rankings, from driest to
wettest for each sub-region and the combined mountain-wide area, appear in
Table 4.

TABLE 4
Percent of long-term maximum spring sno~urse water content
ranked from lowest to highest for mountainous sub-regions of
Colorado.*
Sub-Region
South North East Central West Central Combined
-
77 66 62 64 72
79 71 69 76 n
82 79 76 91 83
83 tl4 79 93 tl5
84 85 81 93 87
91 100 94 96 96
92 104 98 98 103
97 110 100 99 105
118 118 102 100 110
123 120 104 107 no
128 123 126 119 114
136 124 134 127 127
150 127 143 148 141

*Winters are ranked independently for each sub-region.

The range and distribution of the percentages ranked in Table 4 vary
from one sub-region to another. Percentages generally range, however,
from a low of 60 to tlO percent to a high of 125 to 150 percent. None of
the winters appears to have been extremely dry or wet. For comparison,
similar percentages computed for the extremely dry winters of 1976-77 and
1980-81 appear in Table 5. Interpolated rawinsonde data are not available
for these winters, however.

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