The Fort Collins Weather Station utilizes a non-heated tipping bucket rain gage to report precipitation data online. This type of gage delays the reporting of water equivalent of snow events due to the fact that the snow is melting naturally as opposed to a heated tipping bucket, which will melt the snow as it falls.
It is also important to note that this data is UNOFFICIAL. The official record for this weather station is a manual standard gage utilized by the National Weather Service. However, the tipping bucket gage does provide useful information during rain events and after snow events.
The tipping bucket gage is also part of the City of Fort Collins Flood Warning System.