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<br />) NEWSLETTER 90 - 1 <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />lr~ <br /> <br /> <br />GENERAL INTEREST: May 1st began the 16th consecutive season of tM!1Y0-.1'90 <br />Western Kansas Weather Modification <WKWM) Program to reduce -=and . '. <br />increase rainfall. The program target area this season is ten ~~~ <br />counties and approximately a third of another covering over 8,30~. <br />square miles, or 5.3 million acres!. . <br /> <br />FOR THE WEEK <br /> <br />KAY 1 - KAY 4, <br /> <br />1990 <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />The counties participating this season are: The SW third of <br />Wallace, Greeley, Wichita, Scott, Lane, Kearny, Finney, Gray, Ford, <br />Stanton and Haskell. Changes in county participation this season <br />compared to last year are: <br /> <br />IN: Gray County <br /> <br />OUT: Grant County <br /> <br />With the loss of Grant County, there now remain just 5 counties <br />in the WKWM program that have been in it continuously since its <br />inception in 1975; all those counties now show average county crop <br />hail insurance rates less than in 1975 <as does Grant, by 16%). <br /> <br />Our program began this season with 3 cloud base aircraft <br />available for seeding. The cloud top seeding aircraft, a Piper <br />Navajo, was ready May 3rd and will be flown by Kyle Spencer, from <br />Kendall. Kyle previously flew three years for us in our single-engine <br />Comanches at cloud base. Also returning to the program is Luke <br />Gerard, from Johnson, having flown last year and a portion of 1988. <br />Both LeRoy Wilson, a 5-year veteran with us from Scott City, and <br />perennial program pilot, Chip Taft, from Boulder, Colorado, will be <br />here for the first two weeks of the season. Two new pilots, trained <br />in weather modification by the University of North Dakota, will take <br />over seeding duties by mid-month. They are: Aaron Radtke from Green <br />Bay, Wisconsin and Bill Lisco, Grand Forks, North Dakota. <br /> <br />Three intern pilots from the University of North Dakota, as part <br />of a work-study program, will fly with our seasoned pilots-in-command <br />on seeding missions during their 3-month summer break. We support <br />this effort since it allows new pilots to obtain valuable experience <br />and helps provide pilots to weather modification programs at no cost <br />to the WKWM Program. <br /> <br />OPERATIONS: There were no operations during this first period of the <br />season. There were excellent rains <and some snowfall) over western <br />and southwestern Kansas. Most reported rainfall was 1"- 2"; some were <br />greater than 2". This widespread rain and snow was caused by a cold <br />cutoff upper level low pressure system that moved HE from southern <br />California and SW Arizona directly over SW Kansas. As this low center <br />approached, winds circulated counter-clockwise causing massive upslope <br />air to lift, condense and precipitate in western Kansas and eastern <br />Colorado. Also contributing to the precipitation was the colder air <br />and convergence associated with it as it neared. In the past this type <br />of pattern typically produces almost continuous rainfall over large <br />areas <often, much heavier) and present little opportunity for seeding <br />since it is naturally efficient with abundant ice crystals in its <br />sub-freezing cloud volume. <br /> <br />Curtis D. Smith <br />