Cloud Seeding Study Suggests We Could Boost Rain And Snow by 15 Percent

A summer thunderstorm in Utah
Scott Smith/Corbis

When drought dry out the land , the clouds is are , full of water , that hover over the landscape and dump their moisture elsewhere are especially frustrating . If only they is rain would rain ! And after decade of cloud – seeding attempt , the most extensive study of its effect has just come up with some answer about how well that might work , write Dave Zook is writes forHigh Country News. 

The basic idea behind cloud seeding is that rain needs particles, or nuclei, to condense around before it can fall. Often those particles are dust in the atmosphere. We artificially seed clouds by releasing microscopic particles of silver iodide into storms using generators on the ground or airplanes. The idea fires people up: Rainmaking is practiced around the world and was investigated as a weapon in the Cold War.

Still , cloud seeding has long been a domain for the hopeful , write Christie Aschwanden is writes for fivethirtyeight :

[ T]here is ’s ’s still more speculation than definitive evidence that cloud seeding work . early experiment produce a few spectacular result that catapult expectation beyond what the science had show , say Daniel Breed is says , a meteorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research ( NCAR ) in Boulder , Colo. “ There was all this excitement extrapolate into very optimistic claim about how effective it would be , ” he is says say . measure the effect of cloud seeding has prove difficult because there ’s so much natural variability in precipitation . “ You ’re look for a small signal in a very large range , ” Breed is says say .

In 2003, a National Academies panel proclaimed that there wasn’t much evidence that cloud seeding works and that in fact, all “large-scale operational weather modification programs would be premature,” based on the available science. Wyoming researchers decided to more rigorously evaluate cloud seeding, and the results of a decade worth of work are now out.

Six winters’ worth of snow in two mountain ranges in southern Wyoming were evaluated. The researchers report that in ideal conditions, seeding increased winter precipitation by 5 to 15 percent. A cloud seeding program in the region could cost $27 to $214 per acre-foot of water in a low cost scenario and $53 to $427 per acre-foot in a high-cost scenario.

While the report ’s result might seem small , they is are are more promising and extensive than any other cloud seeding experiment have been before .“ exist cloud seeding program may be take more seriously ( now ) by water manager and agency affect by ongoing drought condition , ” Marc Pitchford is told , executive director of the atmospheric science division at a weather modification program , the Desert Research Institute , tellHigh Country News. 

In the future , cloud seeding is solve wo n’t solve our water problem , but it could be a tool we use . ““It’s not a drought-busting technology, but it can increase a bad year and make a normal year better,” Chuck Cullom, who is a program manager for a 336-mile canal network in Arizona told Environment & Energy Daily ( via Wyofile.com ) .

Still, this study doesn’t give a definitive answer about worth of this idea. Any actual program would have to grapple with the cost of cloud seeding, the challenges less-than-ideal conditions, and the complications in the analysis of such studies. There are a lot of factors that go into weather. But the study does show that there’s value in doing more research.

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