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<br />003~83 <br /> <br />Rhea used interpolated sounding data to estimate the 13-year snowfall <br />total in major drainage basins as a function of three 500 rob temperature <br />classes and 12 categories of 700 rob wind direction. We used his estimates <br />(hereafter referred to as rrodel-determined contributions) to "weight" the <br />effect of each storm on each basin. This refinement helped account for <br />differences in snowfall caused by the orientation of each basin to the <br />wind direction of each storm and for differences in cloud temperature that <br />could affect precipitation. <br /> <br />Specifically, we tested our ability to "predict" seasonal snowfall in <br />each basin from the number of storms by: <br /> <br />1) Identifying selected soundings which qualified as storms, <br /> <br />2) Determining the 500 rob temperature and 700 rob wind direction of <br />these qualifying storms, <br /> <br />3) AsSigning the appropriate Rhea rrodel-determined contribution to <br />each qualifying storm, <br /> <br />4) SUmning these contributions for each basin for each of the 13 <br />winters, and <br /> <br />5) Correlating these sums with water content observations from <br />snowcourses in or near each basin. <br /> <br />Correlations between seasonally sumned model-determined contributions <br />and maximum spring water content for each snowcourse appear in Table 7. <br />Coefficients range from .22 to .76. 'they are much higher for courses in <br />some basins than for others. Fbr example, correlations for the two <br />courses in the Dolores Basin (Basin 1) are .32 and .35 while the two in <br />the South Platte Basin (Basin 8) are .74 and .76. Nearly two-thirds of <br />the coefficients for individual courses in. all basins are greater than <br />.5. Scattergrams reveal that a few of the coefficients are attenuated <br /> <br />24 <br />