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Abundant sunshine is a prominent aspect of the climate with an average of 130 clear, 119 partly cloudy, and 116 cloudy days per year. The cloudiest months are March, April, and May and the clearest is October. During the summer months partly cloudy skies are the rule. Examination of a combined precipitation-temperature analysis clearly demonstrates that drought periods are, using annual averages, uncommon except in the autumn when they may occur. This is evident because the wettest ,months occur during the hottest months. This is unusual in Colorado as most areas, except the higher elevations and extreme eastern part of the state, have a very distinct dry period during June, July and August. Denver, for example, shows a pronounced drought period from mid-June to October. The precipitation-temperature pattern for Colorado Springs is most similar to the pattern seen in extreme eastern • Colorado (e.g. Burli~Ygton). This indicates a very advantageous climate for reclamation, except that much of that summer precipitation commonly occurs in severe thunderstorms rather than slow rains. For this reason, erosion control is important and the plants may also be subjected to short periods of extreme moisture stress. This, in part, explains why much of the vegetation, except for north facing slopes, is characteristic of drier, less favorable climates than the precipitation-temperature analysis itself would indicate. The number of below average precipitation years usually exceeds the number of above average precipitation years in semi-arid and arid climates. This is also true of Colorado Springs although not as extreme as most areas of Colorado. For Colorado Springs 54~ of the years are below average and 208 of the years are more than 3.88" below normal. • Wet years are usually much wetter than average by as much as 5 to 10 inches. (See Table 1 and Figure 1) P-K-2