INTRODUCTION 



Hydrologists commonly accept the fact that rainfall records for high mountain areas 

 are exceedingly scanty. In Utah, most of the rainfall intensity gages are located in the 

 valleys, at elevations less than 6,000 feet m.s.l. Most of the records of rainfall in 

 the valleys have never been analyzed for precipitation characteristics of storms having 

 durations of less than 60 minutes. Even the available records of rainfall in the moun- 

 tains have never been analyzed for those storm characteristics that are most pertinent 

 to wildland managers and research workers in the field of watershed protection. In fact, 

 most of the available records have never been analyzed beyond weekly or monthly totals. 



This paper presents the results of analyses of data from two mountain networks of 

 recording precipitation gages: 11 stations on the Great Basin Experimental Area in cen- 

 tral Utah; and 14 stations on the Davis County Experimental Watershed in northern Utah. 

 The gages in central Utah are located at elevations between 5,550 and 10,150 feet m.s.l. 

 The gages in northern Utah are located at elevations between 4,350 and 9,000 feet m.s.l. 

 (figs . 1 and 2) . 



All of the rainfall records were collected during the period May 1st to October 

 31st. Most of these records were obtained from weighing-type analog gages, but a few 

 of the earliest records were from tipping-bucket gages. The total records of all 

 stations comprise 495 station seasons; 5,207 station storms were recorded. A single 

 storm was often recorded on more than one gage. 



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