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<br />I. BACKGROUND <br /> <br />Probably the first rain stimulation proposal reasonably based <br />upon science was by James P. Espy. In the April S, 1839 issue of <br />the National Gazette and Literary Register of Philadelphia, Espy <br />proposed building large fires to generate updrafts. He reasoned <br />that in a humid atmosphere cumulus clouds would develop and <br />eventually produce rain. There are no records indicating the <br />scheme led to any field trials. In the 1880's Congress appropriated <br />$10,000 to conduct some field experiments based on an old idea that <br />"it always rains after a battle". Afterward, tests were performed <br />with explosive charges carried aloft in balloons and optimistic <br />reports soon followed. In the 1930's work done by Tor Bergeron and <br />W. Findeisen led to formulating the concept that clouds may contain <br />both supercooled water and ice crystals. This further led to the <br />concepts of "warm rain" and "cold rain" (See Section II). <br /> <br />Modern -scientific cloud modification had its serious <br />beginnings in the late 1940's. In the General Electric Laboratories <br />in Schenectady, New York, the researchers Schaefer, Langmuir and <br />Vonnegut used dry ice and silver iodide as ice nucleating agents <br />during early trials in the laboratory and field. The ice nucleating <br />.agents used in cloud seeding have changed little with time and <br />stil~ are used in Kansas as well as on other programs worldwide. <br /> <br />In 1972 the Kansas Legislature took a giant and progressive <br />step forward when it enacted the Groundwater Management District <br />Act. The act enabled interested groups to form organizations to <br />implement area water conservation programs for themselves. Western <br />Kansas Groundwater Management District #1 (WKGMD #1) thus became a <br />legal entity of the State of Kansas. <br /> <br />Soon after WKGMD #1 ... came into being, Groundwater District <br />supporters began to identify program goals and specific objectives. <br />An early objective was to organize, design and implement an <br />operational weather modification program to seed convective clouds <br />to help alleviate the increasing loss of sub-surface water in <br />Western Kansas. The decision to implement such a program came after <br />thoroughly reviewing results from the research program known as the <br />Kansas Cumulus Project (KANCUP) and from the state-sponsored <br />seeding programs being conducted in South Dakota and North Dakota. <br /> <br />WKGMD #1 envisioned a perennially supported program over a <br />large area in Western Kansas operating during the period in which <br />crops were planted, grown and harvested. The objectives were to: <br /> <br />(1) increase areal rainfall by seeding selected clouds in the <br />absence of severe or potentially severe weather <br /> <br />(2) decrease the occurrence of crop-damaging hail by seeding <br />potentially severe storms <br /> <br />1 <br />