History of Texas Weather Modification

http://www.texasweathermodification.com/history.htm

The first “hint” of the potential of human activity to alter the behavior of clouds came just after the Civil War, when civil engineer Edward Powers made the observation that rainstorms often occurred where major battles between Union and Confederate troops were waged. The immense smoke, dust, and other particulate matter put into the air during conflict seemed to invigorate clouds to rain more.

Weather Modification has been tried since 1891 in Texas, the first attempt by patent attorney Robert Dyrenforth, who was given a $2,000 grant by the U.S. Congress to do a series of rain making experiments near Midland. Severe droughts have driven the need for weather modification since it’s beginning, and the
current attempt is no exception. Ground based generators have been used in several parts of the state over the years; then airplanes were tried, delivering dry ice, and then flares, and generators producing silver iodide particles.

Entrepreneur C. W. Post, founder of the Post cereal company, established a “beach-head” along the Caprock, at present-day Post, Texas during the early 1910’s to experiment with explosives to disturb promising rain clouds. Post and his team of researchers conducted numerous trials during 1911-1914, using
dynamite strategically placed just below and along the Caprock. While rain fell on some days, the results of the experiments were never conclusive.

Numerous “rain-making” endeavors sprouted in Texas during the terrible drought of the 1950’s. Some of the projects used ground-based generators to dispense agents such as silver iodide, while others featured aircraft that released various hygroscopic and glaciogenic seeding materials, including dry ice.

The 1950’s drought, and subsequent droughts in the early 1960’s, prompted so much cloud-seeding that the Texas Legislature was led to enact the Texas Weather Modification Act in 1967. That act required any individual, or organization, attempting to modify the weather to obtain a weather-modification license and permit from the State’s water agency.

In 1997, the State of Texas made its initial commitment to sponsoring rain-enhancement projects by devoting $550,000 to cost-share, with four political
subdivisions, for cloud-seeding activities using aircraft. Subsequent legislative sessions increased funding for these, and other projects, first through the Texas
Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) and then to Texas Department of Agriculture.

One of the Nation’s most enduring weather-modification projects is located in West Texas between the Permian Basin and the South Plains, at the headwaters
of the Colorado River of Texas. The rain-enhancement project of the Colorado River Municipal Water District (CRMWD) was begun in 1971 to generate
additional rainwater, and hence runoff, into the two reservoirs (Lake Thomas and E. V. Spence Reservoir) on the Colorado. The District employs its own team of
experts and uses its own weather radar and specially-equipped aircraft to conduct seeding operations each year from April to October. With its base of
operation in Big Spring, the District’s seeding program covers some 2.6 million acres (or about 4,000 square miles) between Lubbock and Midland. As with all
organizations that conduct cloud-seeding activities, or contract with firms for cloud-seeding services, the CRMWD holds a weather-modification license and
permit from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR).

Nine other cloud-seeding projects operate elsewhere in West and South Texas during the growing season. A number of counties between San Angelo and
Midland led the way in forming a weather modification association in 1995 to sponsor cloud seeding in a 6.4 million acre area on the Edwards Plateau. The
counties’ water-conservation districts served as a convenient way to finance the cost of a cloud-seeding operation through ad valorem taxes. The association’s
governing board, with representation from each of the seven counties participating in the project, then made decisions on when and how to do rain
enhancement. For a program lasting some 5-6 months, the cost of cloud seeding (approximately $0.08/acre) was assessed uniformly over the entire target,
using acreage in each county as the basis for cost assessment. Initially, the West Texas Weather Modification Association (WTWMA) contracted for cloud-
seeding services, but eventually invested in its own aircraft, radar facilities, and personnel. The Association has been conducting its own weather-modification
operation since 1998.



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Texas Water Tour: Cloud Seeding

https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/economic-data/water/2022/seeding.php

Introduction

Water is the lifeblood of our state, and a reliable water supply is vital to the Texas economy and its growing population. According to the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), Texas’ water demands are projected to increase by approximately 9 percent over the next 50 years, while its existing water supplies are projected to decline by approximately 18 percent during that time.[1] It is crucial, therefore, for Texas to secure the water resources necessary to sustain its growth and provide for the future. To help supplement the state’s water supply, some areas are using periodic cloud seeding attempts to increase rainfall.


What is Cloud Seeding?

Cloud seeding (also called precipitation enhancement) is a form of weather modification used to stimulate clouds to produce more rain. The process involves using aircraft to spray clouds with small particles that have a structure like ice, such as silver iodide. The particles cause the moisture in the cloud to condense into water droplets until they are heavy enough to fall as rain (Exhibit 1).

Exhibit 1

• South Texas Weather Modification Association (STWMA), based south of San Antonio in Pleasanton, has a target area of nearly 6 million acres stretching from the base of the Edwards Plateau almost to the coastal bend of Texas. As an alliance of the Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District, the Live Oak Underground Water Conservation District, and a county commission, the STWMA operates on a year-round basis.
• The West Texas Weather Modification Association (WTWMA) is based in San Angelo and has a target area of 6.4 million acres between Midland and San Angelo. The WTWMA holds permits for both rain enhancement and hail suppression operations.
• The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District (PGCD) conducts cloud seeding operations to augment groundwater recharge over the Ogallala Aquifer in its target area of nearly 4.1 million acres in the eastern sector of the Texas Panhandle, which gives it access to cloud systems moving out of Oklahoma.
• The Trans Pecos Weather Modification Association (TPWMA) consists of the Ward County Irrigation District and other political subdivisions within Culberson, Loving, Pecos, Reeves, and Ward counties. Its 5.1-million-acre target area is along and west of the Pecos River. TPWMA’s seeding missions are directed by a meteorologist based in San Angelo, and its aircraft are based at the airports in Pecos, Fort Stockton, and Alpine.
• The Rolling Plains Water Enhancement Project is sponsored by several counties north of Abilene and covers a target area that extends east toward the Red River Valley. Its original target area was 3.5 million acres; however, three additional counties have since been added to the west and southwest to allow for an adequate “buffer” in which aircraft could operate to seed storms moving northeastward into the target area. The seeding aircraft operate from within the multi-county target area.

This is fascinating. I had no idea.

Quote: Isailedaway wrote in post #4

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lots of examples but where are the concrete results?

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