WSP01635

• File Number: 8200.400
• Description: Colorado River Basin - Briefing Documents-History-Correspondence
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 10/1/1961
• Author: CSU Civil Engineerin
• Title: Analysis of Precipitation Data in the Upper Colorado River Basin
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

OJJ483

31

VI. APPENDICES

A. PROCEDURES FOR MACffiNE PROCESSING
OF PRECIPITATION DATA

Step 1. Punching of Daily Cards

Data as taken from the stations involved in
this project, were punched into cards using the
following format:

Columns

1,2
3-6
7,8
9. 10
11,12
13
14-16
17-19
23-26
27-29
30-32

state
alpha order no.
year
month
day
division
max. temp. (degrees F)
min. temp. (degrees F)
precip. (hundreths of an inch)
24 hr. snow fall (tenths of an inch)
snow depth (inches)

11 punches were used in the following columns:

14,17
30
26,29,32
25,28
23,27

negative temperature
no snow on ground
trace of precip. or snow
precip. Or snow recorded next day
no precip. or snow

Blanks were in columns 23-26, 27-29,
30-32 if no observation (a day with no
record) was reported.

Step 2. Listing of Daily Cards

A list by months was prepared on the IBM
402. Monthly totals for all items in step 1 were
computed, and the presence of 11 punches and
blanks was indicated.

Step 3. Errors in Daily Cards

The list acquired in step 2 was used to check
for errors in punching. The totals were compared
with totals available from the U. S. Weather Bureau.
Also the totals for the first 6 items (cols. 1-13) in
step 1, were checked to insure correct identifica-
tion and date. Discrepancies were corrected by
checking each day in that month.

Step 4. Corrected Daily Cards

Daily cards found to be in error in step 3 were
repunched and verified. These corrected daily
cards replaced the daily cards that were in error.
This procedure was done by hand due to the possi-
bility of date errors and the small number of
corrected cards as compared to the original cards.

Step 5. Duplication of Daily Cards

All daily cards, as corrected, Were duplicated
on the IBM 514. One set was sent to the U. S.
Weather Bureau and the other set was retained for
further reduction and analysis.

Step 6. Storm Summarization

In reducing the daily cards to a smaller, more
workable set of "summary cardsll the following
definitions were used: A storm consists of con-
secutive days with precipitation greater than trace.
A storm period begins with the first day of pre-
cipitation in a stOrm and ends with the day preceding
the following run of consecutive days with precipita-
tion, as shown in the example below.

Only the station identification. data and
precipitation (columns 23-26 on the daily cards)
were used in this operation.

Daily {precip. 0 0 .2 .4 0 0 .2 T .6 .8 0 T T 0 0 .5
Cards Serial date 1 2 ~ 7 8 ~ 10 II 12 13 14 15 16
'--r"-' ./
---v-
Storm 2 3
Serial No.
Summary Precip. O. 6 0.2 1.4
Cards
Serial day 6 8 15
storm ends