Office staff generate 2 RAOBs daily and provide NOAA Weather Radio programming for 3 transmitters. The staff also monitors 11 other ASOS units and oversees several second order and SAWRs observation stations. In addition, the first weather radar system, a WSR-88D Doppler radar, supporting the mountains of western Colorado and eastern Utah, was installed during the fall of 1995 and commissioned in June 1996. The office is in the transition process to become the forecast office for western Colorado and eastern Utah. As part of this transition, the forecast staff now issues terminal aerodrome forecasts for 7 airports and aviation route forecasts for 3 air routes across this area and issues first period zone forecasts for the Colorado portion of the area.
Staff also issues short term forecasts for our most populated regions.
The office also supports a telephonic ring-thru recording. The NWSO has total hydrologic responsibility for western Colorado and eastern Utah. It issues all public flood and flash flood products for this area. In conjunction with the Bureau of Reclamation, the office is equipped with a unique satellite based system allowing our staff to monitor Ridgway and other potentially dangerous dams. Included in the 30,000 square miles of county warning responsibility are 8 major rivers.