Silver bullets: Can cloud seeding ease the drought in the West?

Doug StruckThese cloud seeders fly their planes close to thunderstorms to try to prompt precipitation. They’re spending the summer near the airport in Bowman, North Dakota, ready to go aloft on short notice. Pilots Tyler Couch (left) and Alex Bestul (second from left) are training pilot interns Izzy Adams and Hanna Anderson (right).

August 18, 2021

By Doug Struck Correspondent

BOWMAN, N.D.

During the summers, Tyler Couch and his crew don’t have a whole lot to do except watch the sky. Sometimes they step outside to scan the pale horizon. Sometimes they huddle with meteorologists at North Dakota’s Bowman Regional Airport to look at radar reports.

When a storm does develop – the right kind of storm, with good size and clouds with enough moisture – Mr. Couch and the other pilots jump into action. They do what most pilots are trained not to do: fly toward a thunderstorm.

They position their aircraft on the fringes of the storm, consult by radio with the radar operators on the ground, and fire off flares burning silver iodide. The hope is that the water in the cloud will adhere to the iodide’s icelike molecular structure and, when it gets heavy enough, fall as precipitation to the parched ground below.

A summer of storm chasing

The effort in North Dakota is hotly contested – and banned in some areas – by opponents who object to what they say is an effort to play God, or to the cost of something they say is unproved. Advocates say the science is in; it can increase precipitation marginally and is worth the cost.

To read full story click here