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<br />EVALUATION OF THE WESTERN KANSAS <br />WEATHER MODIFICATION PROGRAM <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY <br /> <br />Weather modification activities began in Western Kansas in 1972 and several cloud seeding <br />operations were conducted from 1972 through 1978. The centerpiece of weather modification <br />activities in Kansas is represented by the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program that has <br />operated from 1975 to the present time under the leadership of the Western Kansas Groundwater <br />Management District No.1. The primary objective of the Program has been to reduce hail damage, <br />although a significant effort has also been made to increase precipitation. <br /> <br />The Western Kansas Weather Modification Program has been solely locally funded with fInancial <br />support typically ranging between $150,000 and $250,000 per year. State support for the Program <br />has been limited to the annual issuance of a permit to operate the Program by the Kansas Water <br />OffIce. <br /> <br />In late 1993 and early 1994, Keith Lebbin and Wayne Bossert, Managers of Western Kansas <br />Groundwater Management District No. 1 and Northwest KanSas Groundwater Management District <br />No.4, respectively, called upon the Kansas Water OffIce to evaluate the effectiveness of this <br />Program in order to increase the likelihood that state support might be provided to enhance and/or <br />enlarge the Program. The Kansas Water OffIce proceeded to prepare a new subsection of the State <br />Water Plan entitled "The State Role in Weather Modification" and was directed by the Kansas Water <br />Authority to proceed with an evaluation of the Program. It was indicated in this new subsection that <br />state support for the Program would be dependent upon a favorable outcome to the evaluation. <br /> <br />The Western Kansas Weather Modification Program has been evaluated on several previous <br />occasions by various entities. However, the previous evaluation methodology and/or results have <br />been viewed as somewhat inconclusive by the Kansas Water OffIce. The recently completed <br />evaluation of this Program, by the Kansas Water OffIce, differed from previous evaluations of the <br />Program in the following three significant areas: 1) the general methodology to be used for <br />conducting the Kansas Water Office evaluation was distributed to the three Western Kansas <br />Groundwater Management District Managers and was endorsed by the Managers and the Kansas <br />Water Office, 2) the target area (counties receiving cloud seeding) consisted of the six counties who <br />had participated in the Program for every year that was included in the evaluation time period and <br />3) the control area did nQ1 include any counties that received cloud seeding during any portion of <br />the evaluation time period. <br /> <br />The precipitation component of the Kansas Water OffIce evaluation of the Program showed that <br />precipitation declined by 0.25 inches in the target area from the pre-cloud seeding time period of <br />1941 to 1970 to the cloud seeding time period of1979-1993. This amount of change in rainfall is <br />well within normal preCipitation variation and was determined to be of no practical economic <br />signifIcance. It should also be noted that in 1993 only 7 percent of all flights were for the sole <br /> <br />5 <br />