WMOD00317 ‎(2)‎

• Title: A Comparison of the Potential of Cloud Seeding to Enhance Mountain Snowpack in Colorado During Dry, Normal and Wet Winters
• Date: 1/1/1983
• State: CO
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

PURPOSE

'I'he Weather Modification Program of the Colorado Department of
Natural Resources conducted this study to compare the potential of cloud
seeding to enhance mountain snowpack in Colorado during drr, normal and wet
winters. The study was undertaken to help decide when seeding could be
most effective in augmenting Colorado's water supply. Its objective was to
determine if, as some scientists have sPe<:;:ulated, fewer seedable storms and
lower percentage increases in snowpack are eXPe<:;:ted during dry winters than
during winters of average or above average precipitation. Assessment of
the relative effectiveness of seeding in dry and wet winters was desirable
because it is anticipated that seeding will be proposed as a method of
increasing mountain snowpack during future drought.

The study was funded by the Southwest Drought Research Program,
Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, a program of technical t.-
and socioeconomic research pertinent to the future use of cloud seeding for
drought relief in Colorado, Arizona, utah, Oklahoma and Texas.

The role of weather modification in drought relief and the impact of
social responses to drought in Colorado are treated in the following two
sections. Discussions of the theory of winter cloud seeding, previous
field experiments in Colorado, potential benefits and disadvantages of
seeding and variability in Colorado's snowpack appear in Appendices A
through C.

WEATHER lvDDIFlCATION AND DROUGHT RELIEF

Several authors have discussed potential roles of weather
modification in drought relief. Their comments are mainly speculative,
based more on opinion than on scientific evidence.

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