So far, SRP is in the early stages of researching cloud seeding. For now, it’s only looking at a ground-based cloud seeding program to produce more snow in the White Mountains. The state also helps fund cloud seeding programs in Colorado meant to increase flows into the Colorado River.
He said water in these clouds is below freezing but too small to form into ice crystals and too light to fall to the ground. Silver iodide acts like an ice crystal and gives the supercooled liquid a platform to collect and form ice crystals. “This is kind of the hole, a gap,” he said. “But yet geographically speaking, it looks like the most promising area” for cloud seeding.
Gary Walker, a pilot who started a Texas cloud seeding company called SOAR, said an air-based method – which Arizona may consider later – uses an airplane equipped with ejectable and burn-in-place flares. Burn-in-place flares are used when the pilot can fly through clouds to directly disperse the silver iodide into the supercooled liquid.In a study done by Wyoming, the state found that a ground-based seeding method with remote generators would cost $35 to $107 per acre foot of water produced .
“The water we make with cloud seeding, even if you pay $50,000 a month, is pretty doggone cheap,” Walker said. “God gives us groundwater and rainwater and that’s all he gives us in that portion of Texas,” Walker said. “No surface water whatsoever.” Since then, countries around the world have seeded clouds to create more precipitation or to suppress hail.Arizona already is invested in cloud seeding. The Central Arizona Water Conservation District commits up to $470,000 annually to Colorado’s program. Snow created there melts and flows into the Colorado River for Arizona and six other states to use.
“To have a successful seeding program, it’s really dependent on the kind of winter we have,” Rickert said. He detailed how his program broke records last December, but January and February “were basically like nothing.” Silver iodide naturally occurring in the Earth’s crust is “a million times more” than the amount released during cloud seeding, he said, adding that silver iodide doesn’t interact with the environment.