This paper examines the effect of high elevation weather stations on the rainfall index used by the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage insurance program. Weather station data for the state of Utah is used to identify high elevation weather stations and their location. Utilizing the corresponding rainfall index data, the effect of the high elevation weather stations is determined. This paper finds when high elevation weather stations begin reporting there is a jump up of 19.01–27.88 percentage

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... on average in the rainfall index for the corresponding grid locations. This indicates the rainfall index may not accurately represent actual precipitation amounts in areas with large elevation changes. If the measurements recorded by the rainfall index for PRF do not match actual amounts of precipitation, then the rainfall index is potentially introducing more risk and undermines the ability of PRF to effectively mitigate risk for producers.