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<br />Appendix A <br /> <br />THE WEATHER DAMAGE MODIFICATION PROGRAM <br /> <br />Steven M. Hunter *, Jon Medina and David A. Matthews <br /> <br />U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Denver, CO <br /> <br />16th Conference Planned and Inadvertent <br />Weather Modification, San Diego, Califomia <br />American Meteorological Society, January 2005 <br /> <br />1. INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has been engaged in weather modification <br />research since the 1960s, although this research declined significantly in the late 1980s through <br />1990s. In Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2002, however, Congress authorized funding of the Weather <br />Damage Modification Program (WDMP) and specified that it be administered by Reclamation. <br />The primary goal of the program is to improve and evaluate physical mechanisms to limit damage <br />from weather phenomena such as drought and hail, and to enhance water supplies through <br />regional weather modification research programs and transfer validated technologies for <br />implementation within operational programs. The WDMP program received $1.2M for field <br />research in FY 2002 and 0.8M in FY 2003, but was not funded in FY 2004 and beyond. These <br />monies have supported research in seven states: Colorado, Texas (in cooperation with New <br />Mexico and Oklahoma), Nevada, Utah, and North Dakota. <br />The WDMP focused on three intermediate targets associated with the overall goal: rainfall <br />augmentation, snowfall augmentation, and hail suppression. Participating states were expected to <br />match federal funding and 'piggyback" their research on existing operational weather modification <br />projects. This paper summarizes the science questions p,ursued, research approaches, and <br />current status of each state project. <br />A recent report on weather modification research (NAS 2003) cites advances in <br />ob'selVational, computational, and statistical technologies over the last few decades that could be <br />applied to weather modification. Based partly on these advances, the report recommends <br />initiation of a sustained national research program. Although the WDMP is not presently funded, <br />the program may seIVe as a foundation for such a research program with Federal govemment <br />support. Also, according to the NAS report, such research should be pursued because weather <br />modification has the potential for relieving water resource stresses. Reclamation is the major <br />wholesale supplier of water in the U.S. and operates in 17 westem states, where such stresses <br />are the most severe, owing in part to a multi-year drought and rapid population growth. As a <br />result, Reclamation is being forced to make increasingly difficult choices regarding water <br />allocation. <br />The WDMP represents the first federally supported attempt in the 21" century to investigate <br />some of the major lingering scientific questions about the efficacy of weather modification. <br />Answers to these questions are crucial prerequiskes to widespread use of weather modification to <br />alleviate the burgeoning water supply crisis in the West <br /> <br />2. RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF PROJECTS <br /> <br />2.1 Winter Orographic Seeding <br /> <br />, Corresponding author address: Steven M. Hunter, Bureau ofReclamalion 0-8510, P.O. Box 25007, <br />Denver, CO, 80225-0007; e-mail: smhunterra>.do.usbr.gov <br /> <br />-1- <br />