Water is prized in western Kansas, where aquifers are suffering and farms are miles wide and generations deep; a scant half inch of rain can mean the difference between a successful season and a failed one.
But when it comes in the form of fist-sized balls of ice known as hail, water's more than a menace. It can damage and even destroy crops.
That's where the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program and other cloud-seeding operations across the western U.S. come in. The WKWMP is among about 10 programs that tinker with the weather — either by trying to cut the size of hail or boost rainfall and snowpack. They do it largely by shooting up storm clouds with silver iodide or dry ice mixtures.
Cloud seeders prime the skies for needed rain - USATODAY.com
Also see Weather Modification, Inc. (Cloud Seeding, atmospheric research, rain enhancement, cloud physics)
