Cloud Seeding Takes Flight in Western U.S.

Cloud-seeding, an old technology to inject clouds with chemicals to make rain, is having a renaissance By Eric Niller Updated June 23, 2023 Tap story

Across the Western U.S. and Mexico, demand for cloud-seeding has skyrocketed amid a warming climate and periods of extreme drought. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

It is a cheaper alternative to big-ticket technological solutions such as the desalination of water piped inland from the Pacific Ocean or Gulf of Mexico. Mike Blake/Reuters Make it rain

Cloud-seeding programs to boost both rain and snowfall are now under way in Texas, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico and California.

For West Texas farmer Steve Williams, the benefits of occasional extra rainfall is worth the minimal amount he pays in taxes to his local water district that are earmarked for cloud seeding, about $20 a year. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

Williams and his son farm 1,774 acres of cotton and wheat in one of six counties covered by the aerial seeding flights from the West Texas Weather Modification Association in San Angelo. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

Williams said he usually only gets one or two cloud-seeded rainfalls directly over his property each planting season. However the seeding drops rain on farms around him, recharging the underground aquifer that he and his neighbors depend on for irrigation and drinking water. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

“It's a community effort. Everybody benefits.” —Steve Williams, 73, cotton and wheat farmer in West Texas Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

Cloud-seeding can work in the air or on the ground, where chimney-like generators send chemicals into air masses as they move up the side of mountains.

Military pilots fly through a hailstorm to inject a liquid silver iodide mixture into a storm above Mexico. Most cloud-seeding efforts use particles of silver iodide which have a crystal structure similar to ice. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

Project coordinator of the team looks by the window locating clouds above the state of México they could spread silver iodide liquid into. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

He checks how much silver iodide liquid is left inside storage tank of the aircraft. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

An indicator shows the remaining percentage of silver iodide liquid inside the storage tank in the aircraft. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

This browser does not support the video element. Once the chemicals are injected, the air temperature must reach 20 degrees Fahrenheit—then water vapor begins to freeze around the silver iodide, getting big enough to fall to the ground as rain or snow. A single-engine aircraft flies over Texas, injecting cloud-seeding particles of silver iodide into clouds from a row of flares. Video: Jonathan Jennings; Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

In the summer, cloud-seeding firms use the water-attracting properties of salt crystals such as calcium chloride to do the same thing, except in warmer, humid clouds. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

View of the pilot's radar indicating in green the areas rain is successfully falling. Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal

Inside a small office at the San Angelo Regional Airport, Jonathan Jennings, a project meteorologist for the West Texas Weather Modification Association, monitors storms in order to send his pilots up to seed clouds. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

While local officials are embracing this technology, some weather experts question its effectiveness and whether it just pulls rainwater from one area to fall in another. Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Wall Street Journal

The World Meteorological Organization reviewed cloud-seeding programs across the globe in 2018 and concluded that cloud seeding is a promising technology but that the natural variability in each cloud system makes it difficult to quantify the difference seeding makes. Peer review report

Produced by Siemond Chan Additional photos: Luis Antonio Rojas for The Wall Street Journal; Brandon Bell/Getty; Brittany Peterson/AP Read the full story