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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I h ,~ NORTH AMERICAN INTERSTATE WEATHER MODIFICATION COUNCIL Weather Damage Mitigation Program The North American Interstate Weather Modification Council (the NAIWMC) is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization of regulatory agencies, sponsoring organizations, and research institutions involved in atmospheric water resource management technology, commonly known as weather modification or cloud seeding. The NAIWMC exists to facilitate the free exchange of information regarding cloud seeding research and operations in North America. BACKGROUND Natural disasters resulting from weather-related causes have always been part of the history of the Western United States. Impacts from drought, hail, floods, and tornadoes amount to the loss of billions of dollars each year. As the population of this region of the country continues to grow, the impact of future natural disasters will become more severe. In the past, the United States Bureau of Reclamation has built a number of large darns and other water projects to store water and help mitigate droughts. While these projects have been successful, increased environmental concerns and limited suitable sites have reduced the potential for similar new projects. Future efforts will therefore be primarily non-structural in nature, and should include enhanced surface water production and address mitigation of other natural perils through weather modification techniques. For decades, the Bureau of Reclamation conducted weather modification research. Through these efforts, a sizeable body of knowledge was accumulated about winter and summer precipitation enhancement. Despite the success of the Bureau's program, funding for it was terminated in the late 1980s. In 2001, Congressional action re-established weather modification research in the Bureau through the Weather Damage Modification Program. In 2003, the National Research Council reviewed the current status of weather modification operations and research and published a report entitled Critical Issues in Weather Modification Research. The NRC report recommends that a "coordinated national program be developed to conduct a sustained research effort in the areas of cloud and precipitation microphysics, cloud dynamics, cloud modeling, and cloud seeding; it should be implemented using a balanced approach of modeling, laboratory studies, and field measurements designed to reduce key uncertainties" . WEATHER DAMAGE MITIGATION PROGRAM Over the last ten years, there have been significant advances in weather and climate forecasting, as well as computer modeling, remote sensing, chemistry, and physics. In addition, limited research on weather modification technologies has been conducted, but primarily by other countries. Both clearly indicate that there now exists the real potential to develop a new generation of weather modification technologies that will be more effective and less expensive. www.naiwmc.org