WMOD00150

• Contract/Permit #: #98-1
• Applicant: Western Kansas Groundwater Management
• Project Name: Western Kansas Weather Modification Program
• Date: 4/28/2002
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Proof of Public Notice

WESTERN KANSAS WEATHER MODIFICATION PROGRAM
P.O. BOX 254 Lakin, KS 67860
Phone: [phone] Fax [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail] Internet: http://users.pld.comlhailman

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
No. 2002-3

For the period May 4 - May 10, 2002:

General Interest: An article ill'the American Meteorological Society's May newsletter mentioned that the
National Science Foundation will provide most of the funding for a water-vapor research program over
Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas this May 13th to June 25th. The $7 million research program is being billed
as one of the largest weather-related studies, ever, in the U.S. and called the International H20 Project, or
lliOP2002.

Water vapor is important to everyone: It is the essential ingredient in cloud and rainfall development, in
regulating temperatures via the Greenhouse Effect and it acts as a vehicle for transporting energy due to its
property of latent heat Approximately half of all atmospheric water vapor is found within the first 6,500
feet above ground level and varies greatly both in space and time throughout the world.

Over 100 scientists from the U.S.A and Germany, along with six instruniented aircraft and 30 weather-
sensor equipped research vehicles will team up to document the strong, moisture-rich air movements
through the southern Great Plains. The effort is an attempt to pinpoint areas where large, heavy-rain
producing stonns will develop in advance of a day's first indication of storm initiation. Currently, quality
water-vapor data is lacking and has long been an impediment to timely, accurate, heavy-rain event
forecasting.

High-precision satellite instruments recently have been developed which can identilY minute-by-minute
atmospheric moisture volumes flowing over large areas. This makes the team's data gathering and
documentation extremely important since it will provide ground-truth that will ensure an accurate
calibrntion of those space-borne instnunents.

Since a portion of the WKWMP target area and the lliOP area of study overlap, it is natural we would be
interested in any comparntive results between any seeded storms and natural ones. Their equipment
includes four Doppler rndars mounted on flatbed trucks. However, prospects of such an event happening in
the first place may be slim.

Over the years, on nonna! sununer days, we watch for visible indications of areas of high moisture, or
moist-air "pools." Most often these moisture pools detennine where our first stonn of the day develops. It
is also this first stonn-of-the-day that usually provides our "first rndar echo" which in itself is highly
correlated to the biggest stonn of the day (with heavy rain implied). Often, the day begins, only wisps of
cloud can be seen in these moisture "pools," however, as the day wears on, little convective bubbles begin
to appear. Soon, little cloud towers begin fonning which grow just a little higher with each successive
"pulse," finally the towers begin merging to become one large cloud that can burst explosively into a
classic, mature thunderstonn with copious rainfall.

If cloud seeding is performed properly and early enough while the smaller cloud towers are forming, the
eventual merged cloud system will be able to generate a tremendous amount of rainfall, more than
otherwise would have occurred, and be hail-free.

Weather: The week started out with pleasant weather on Saturday as the target area remained north of a
surface low pressure system and associated cold front over the Oklahoma panhandie. By Sunday, the low
began moving back north slightly into extreme southwestern Kansas. As the low moved north, the cold
front transitioned into a wann front and moved north also into the eastern portion of the target area. This