Data/Methodology The main goal of this study is to examine different meteorological variables during past storms in the Albany area with the end goal providing forecasters with information that will help them identify when reduced precipitation totals in the Hudson Valley due to downsloping will occur, to what degree it will occur, and how far west reduced precipitation totals will make it into the Hudson Valley. For this end goal to be realized a dataset must be obtained which has observations over a wide variety of terrain throughout the study area. Once that dataset is obtained it can then be used to examine patterns during storms which have similar characteristics, as far as meteorological variables are concerned. Generally when looking to study events that happen at the surface, observations are taken from ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System) sites (NCDC 2014), since these sites are well maintained by the National Weather Service, and provide reliable observations each hour, or even more frequently in extreme weather conditions. However, a downside to ASOS sites is that they are primarily located at airports, which produces less than ideal coverage for a study being done on a small scale. Within the Albany area the only ASOS stations are located at KALB (Albany, NY), KPOU (Poughkeepsie, NY), KGFL (Glens Falls, NY), KDDH (Bennington, VT), KAQW (North Adams, MA) and KPSF (Pittsfield, MA). The main intention of this study was to look at the effects of downsloping primarily within Rensselaear and Albany Counties in New York State, and the only ASOS location within those counties is KALB. As a result it was deemed necessary to acquire additional data. The Interior of Eastern New York Weather Observers (ENYWO) is a network of weather spotters run by Robert Gaza of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Spotters in this network take daily observations at 1200 UTC each morning, and
Data/Methodology The main goal of this study is to examine different meteorological variables during past storms in the Albany area with the end goal providing forecasters with information that will help them identify when reduced precipitation totals in the Hudson Valley due to downsloping will occur, to what degree it will occur, and how far west reduced precipitation totals will make it into the Hudson Valley. For this end goal to be realized a dataset must be obtained which has observations over a wide variety of terrain throughout the study area. Once that dataset is obtained it can then be used to examine patterns during storms which have similar characteristics, as far as meteorological variables are concerned. Generally when looking to study events that happen at the surface, observations are taken from ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System) sites (NCDC 2014), since these sites are well maintained by the National Weather Service, and provide reliable observations each hour, or even more frequently in extreme weather conditions. However, a downside to ASOS sites is that they are primarily located at airports, which produces less than ideal coverage for a study being done on a small scale. Within the Albany area the only ASOS stations are located at KALB (Albany, NY), KPOU (Poughkeepsie, NY), KGFL (Glens Falls, NY), KDDH (Bennington, VT), KAQW (North Adams, MA) and KPSF (Pittsfield, MA). The main intention of this study was to look at the effects of downsloping primarily within Rensselaear and Albany Counties in New York State, and the only ASOS location within those counties is KALB. As a result it was deemed necessary to acquire additional data. The Interior of Eastern New York Weather Observers (ENYWO) is a network of weather spotters run by Robert Gaza of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Spotters in this network take daily observations at 1200 UTC each morning, and