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<br />~ <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />IV. OPERATIONAL SUMMARY - 2001 <br /> <br />Table 1, on the following page, summarizes the relevant 2001 WKWMP operational flight, <br />and seeding information, plus it presents all the days upon which crop-hail insurance claims were <br />reported. Each day's flights were broken down into whether an aircraft had performed: (1) hail <br />reduction, (2) rainfall augmentation, (3) a combination of both some hail reduction and some <br />rainfall augmentation, or (4) an observation flight---a flight for which no seeding was performed. <br /> <br />Other operational information is shown in the Appendices, in the back pages of this <br />report: <br /> <br />Appendix A - Historic Program Operational Activity Summary <br />(seeding and observation flights) <br />Appendix B - Historic Monthly Number of seeding Days for Hail and/or Rain <br />Augmentation <br />Appendix C - Historic WKWMP County Participation 1975 -2001 <br />Appendix D - NOAA Form 17- 4A, Final Report on 2001 Monthly Seeding Activities <br /> <br />As mentioned earlier, the year 2001 was not your typical season---feware despite the fact <br />that at year-end, when all the numbers are averaged out, the appearance of a somewhat normal <br />season seems to appear, Really, what is normal is when numbers don't pass the established <br />extremes, be it temperatures, rainfall, winds, etc, <br /> <br />This past year we had a relatively long period of mostly wet weather beginning in late <br />October 2000 which extended through May 2001 into early June, correlating to our severe storm <br />season. Then alternate intermittent dry and moist periods appeared over different regions in the <br />target area the rest of the season. In 2001 we broke the record for having the most seeding days of <br />any September---9 days. There have been 21 seasons in :which this program has operated in <br />September--- see Appendix B, More days would have been added to the September number, <br />except for the FAA grounding all flying in the USA on Sept, 11th due to the World Trade <br />CenterlPentagon attacks. A few days later only certain category flying was able to continue, The <br />type of VFR flying we do was not allowed until Sept. 20th, the very last day of the 2001 season. <br />However, we attempted cloud base seeding on two days prior to Sept. 20th, flying IFR, but it <br />didn't work out well. During this grounded period nearly 10% of our total seasonal crop-hail <br />damage was done. <br /> <br />Two factors greatly influenced the operational numbers accumulated this season---one of <br />them was not weather-related. They were: (I) NWKansas was not in the target area in 2001, and <br />(2) 2001 was not a drought year. A quick check of either Appendix B or Appendix D shows that <br />in the 4-month period, May-August, there were 45 seeding days in 2001---around 12% below <br />normal---compared to the long-term average prior to 2001 of51.3 days, However, little can be <br />compared to the previous few seasons due to the dramatic target area size decrease from 2000 to <br />2001 with NW Kansas no longer part of the total operation. <br /> <br />24 <br />