Characteristics of Supercooled Liquid Water in Clouds at Mountaintop Sites in the Colorado Rockies

Abstract

Observations and measurements were made of supercooled liquid water in clouds which enveloped high elevation sites in the Colorado Rocky Mountains for the winters of 1980/81 through 1983/84. The observations showed that liquid water was more frequent at the southern and northern Rocky sites than at the central sites. Eighty percent of the liquid water periods persisted 3 to 20 h at the northern Rocky site. This site was enveloped by supercooled liquid cloud 24% of the time during the months of December 1981 and January 1982. Average liquid water contents at the sites ranged between 0.14 to 0.23 g m?3; the maximum individual value was 0.60 g m?3. The measurements indicated that substantial amounts of liquid water were flowing over the Colorado Rockies at mountaintop heights.