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~ . ;. OPERATION AND EVALUATION ON THE SANTA BARBARA COUNTY CLOUD SEEDING PROGTW'l 1977-78 WINTER SEASON 1. INTRODUCTION By the summer of 1977, southern California had gone through several consecutive below average precipitation years including two which \vere much below average. As a result of this prolonged drought, water supplies within Santa Barbara CmIDty were becoming critical with no assurance that relief would be immedi~te1y at hand. Consequently, officials within the County \vere looking for solutions to alleviate the water shortage. One such approach was to consider utilizing \'leather modification techniques. Weather modification has an extensive histOIY of application in Santa Barbara County. During the past 25 years, there has been cloud seeding operation of either a research or operational nature during 15 winter seasons. These programs have been conducted under the sponsor- ship of the following agencies at various times: The City of Santa R~rbara; the Mbntecito Water District; the Santa Barbara County Water Agency; the State of California, Department of Water Resources; the National Science Foundation; the U. S. Naval Weal~ns Center, Earth and Planetary Sciences Division; and the Bureau of Reclamation, Division of Atmospheric Water Resources Management. All of these projects were operated by North American Weather Consultants (NAWC) whose headquarters are located at the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport. Because of this wealth of experience, there is more knowledge about the potential of cloud seeding for augmenting water supplies in Santa Barbara County than almost any location in the United States. An extensive report entitled, "Potentials for Yield Augmentation Through Weather Modification" which was prepared by the staff of the Santa Barbara County Water Agency (1977) concluded that "over a period of years, weather modification can increase nonnal precipitation by as much as 15 to 25 percent . . .". 1-1