Explained: Cloud Seeding Weather Modification in Texas before Hurricane Harvey

[Mick West]

Posted on Facebook:



This is a real cloud seeding report, from:
http://wtwma.com/Daily Operations/TPWMA/08242017T.pdf



However it describes cloud seeding on August 24, in Reeves County, over 500 miles from Houston. And as you can tell from the brown nature of the ground, it has a very different climate to Houston.

And on that day Harvey was 800 miles away.



Just because one region 500 miles away is getting a lot of rain, it does not mean that they don't want more in Reeves county. They are untouched by the Hurricane, and they were on that day, and still are now.


The West Texas Weather Modification Association lists its activities here:
http://wtwma.com/operations_page.htm
With a like to current activities:
http://wtwma.com/Daily Operations/TPWMA/
Which has:


In context:

 

[Trailblazer]

Note the entry in the table of atmospheric conditions at the time of the seeding operation: "precipitable water 1.3 inches".

What does that mean? Wikipedia explains:

Precipitable water is the depth of water in a column of the atmosphere, if all the water in that column were precipitated as rain.

Content from External Source

So even if the cloud seeding somehow managed to get all the water in the air over this location to fall as rain, there would only be 1.3 inches of rain. By contrast, Harvey dumped over 50 inches of rain in some areas.