A technique to get clouds to produce more snow is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. Cloud seeding involves using planes and ground-based equipment to put silver iodide into clouds when weather conditions are right.
has steadily increased its fleet of cloud seeding equipment, and the state legislature just approved record funding to further expand programs and research.
"It's always easier to talk about how to get more water than to talk about how to use less," said Kathryn Sorensen with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University in Tempe. "When you look at the problem of over-allocation on the Colorado River, the numbers are so large that really the solutions lie in using less, particularly in the agricultural sector. Politically that’s really painful to confront.
Despite the renewed attention, cloud seeding has been used around the world and in the Rockies for more than 50 years. "That cost per acre-foot was so low, it’s kind of a no brainer," said Jake Serago, water resources engineer with the division. Each is a two-wheeled trailer containing a tank of silver iodide released by a roaring, propane-fueled flame atop a metal mast. There's a communications antenna for signals to turn the generator on and off, depending on conditions.
Among those idled are generators in southern Wyoming's Sierra Madre Range, where snowpack is rivaling the deepest on record, said Jonathan Bowler with the Savery-Little Snake River Water Conservancy District that monitors runoff.
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