Accession Number:

AD0442136

Title:

PRECIPITATION REGIMES OVER THE UPPER COLORADO RIVER,

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

COLORADO STATE UNIV FORT COLLINS

Personal Author(s):

• Marlatt,William
• Riehl,Herbert

Report Date:

1963-04-26

Pagination or Media Count:

7.0

Abstract:

To study certain aspects of the climatology of precipitation integrated over the Colorado River basin, daily precipitation values recorded at weather stations in the basin were gummed with an area weighting method to yield a daily mean basin value. Several checks were performed to test the reliability of the procedure within the limits needed for this analysis. A good correlation was obtained between computed annual precipitation and annual river discharge. It was found that 50 of annual precipitation is produced by 16 per cent of the number of days having precipitation per year about 260. A correlation exists between daily precipitation and fraction of area receiving precipitation, so that large amounts of basinintegrated precipitation are derived from widespread precipitation over the whole basin. This relation holds for both summer and winter, even though the type of clouds producing precipitation changes from altostratus in winter to cumulus in summer. The variance of annual precipitation is caused by variation of the number of days having large amounts produced by passing synoptic-scale weather disturbances. The numerous days with precipitation less than 0.10 inch do not contribute to the variance and may be reckoned as noise. Author

Descriptors:

• *CLIMATE
• ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATION
• COLORADO
• RIVERS
• DIURNAL VARIATIONS
• WATER SUPPLIES
• EQUATIONS
• NUMERICAL METHODS AND PROCEDURES
• WEATHER STATIONS
• HYDROLOGY
• PERIODIC VARIATIONS

Subject Categories:

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE