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<br />-I <br /> <br />As we mentioned in the FOREWORD, the number of operational days in <br />1989 was very close to being what we would consider a "normal" year <br />after adding up and averaging all previous years' operational days for <br />each month (see Appendix'B, in the rear portion of this report>. <br /> <br />No new records were set in any category of operations (flights, <br />flight hours, seeding, etc.> despite the fact that we had relatively <br />abundant rainfall, well-above average in most of the target area. For <br />a period in June and July there was more emphasis on hail suppression <br />instead of rainfall stimulation due to the excessive surface moisture <br />sdtanding in many parts of the target area. As a result, several <br />seeding opportunities were passed when we could have been attempting <br />rain stimulation. <br /> <br />Again, this year we reached our operational limit on several days <br />when we found our aircraft having expended either their fuel or <br />seeding agent, or both; leaving little or no capability to continue <br />working when urgently needed. Extremely severe storms continued <br />raging through our target area on many of these occasions. The worst <br />hail day occurred June 26th when severe storms built to the southwest <br />from Ness County into Finney, Kearny and Stanton counties, then slowly <br />moved southerly across Haskell, Gray, Seward and Stevens. Before the <br />line of storms finished building southwest into Stanton County, the <br />combined flying of the four aircraft was over 19 hours and seeding for <br />17.6 of those hours. It was near the'time of seeding agent/fuel <br />exhaustion that the NW-SE line of storms became a large, solid squall <br />line and reached peak hail potential---just prior to moving through <br />Haskell County, There was no way to get resupplied and back into <br />action quickly enough to work the line of storms. In our target area <br />745 hail claims were eventually submitted by 8 of the 11 participating <br />counties, 355 coming from Haskell County alone. This date, June 26th, <br />produced the single greatest number of hail claims in our target area <br />since the WKWM Program began in 1975. It replaces May 12th, 1985, as <br />the previous high day which recorded 738 claims and the damage claims <br />represent approximately 3% of the total number of claims submitted in <br />the WKWM Program target area since 1975. <br /> <br />J <br /> <br />16 <br />