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I'd like to be clear that I support weather modification research. I'm glad wherever and whenever it can be done, it is done. I have worked with members of the South African team which developed the new flare and I can vouch for their integrity, In fact, our current ~M program's basic hail suppression concepts owes much of its origins to my three-season association with that group during its nearly 10-year involvement in hail suppression operations in the Republic of South Africa's Transvaal. However, I'm a little perplexed. I wonder why there hasn't been any enthusiasm by NCAR (or NSF) to do anything beneficial for active weather modification groups in the USA. If there really is transferable new technology, research applications, etc., why aren't they doing it here? Scarcely no more than a handful of groups like ours. operate in the USA. personally, I'd like to l!leea prestigious group' like NCAR .work with us and others. Why is',it iiiure important for them to perform their research for rain augmentation and/or hail suppression outside ,the USA rather than inside it---is it that we never have drought or hail problems here in the USA? Also, if you think the millions to be spent doing all this over the next 4 years is totally funded by the Mexican government, or other Mexican entities, and not (at least partially) by some financial aid-pass through program funded by US taxpayer money, I've got some cheap ocean-front property in Arizona I'd like to sell you. OPERATIONS; There were three seeding days this week. One day, August 7th, was a day in which no seeding was performed but 11 flights were flown: August 7th. A cold front passed south through the region after midnight from northwest Kansas, from the northwest part of ~he ~arget across the entire target area. It had a history of producing severe weather on its periphery---once a tornado near Burlington, CO, moved east into Kansas before dying near Goodland. As the front moved south, new storms grew along its leading edge~ However, within the mass of numerous thunderstorms and rainshowers, there were only a few severe s~orms, low-topped, short-lived and indicating relatively low hail intensity on radar. Updrafts were not sustained and no seeding was done. Most patrol flights were done in, two waves. of 5, flights each I then ~,.f ina.1,,,t!linglllar,, flight. All times below are in COT. ' " ,,', , , AUGUST 3rd- OPERATIONAL nAY #58: All seeding done this day occurred after midnight in the early morning as a continuation of operations begun the previous day. Operations finished before 1 ,a.l'll. Those flights were covered in las~ week's newsletter. TWo flights were scrambled in the evening around 9:38 p.m. but the storms' hail intensities were quick to rise and fall. Storms became relatively weak within a smallish line of storms in eas~ern Wichita and western Scott counties. Another plane was scrambled a~ 10:15 p.m. to assist seeding a severe storm near Cheyenne Wells (CO) moving toward Wallace County. However, the storm collapsed before reaching Kansas and no seeding was done. Flights were canceled by 10:29 p.m.