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<br />III. GENERAL OPERATIONS - PROJECT DESIGN <br /> <br />The WKWM Program originally was designed to be an operational <br />cloud seeding effort to increase precipitation and reduce crop- <br />damaging hail over participating counties in Western and South- <br />western.Kansas. Although the program objectives have not changed <br />over the years, some modifications to its original design have been <br />made in order to accomplish its stated goals. Changes have been made <br />due to technological innovations and the fact that we have grown <br />much larger by expansion into Northwestern Kan~as. <br /> <br />Over the y~ars we have had to be selective about employing <br />certain technological improvements appearing from time to time due <br />to limited annual budgets. However, 1995 was the watershed year in <br />which we were able to begin making significant improvements to the <br />program for many years. This was made possible only because of major <br />funding coming from both the Kansas Water Office and an additional <br />amount from Groundwater Management District #3, located in Garden <br />City. <br /> <br />History was made in 1997 with the addition of Northwest Kansas <br />GMD #4 and Yuma County, Colorado, to our program target area. A <br />radar site was installed in Colby which allowed our radar coverage <br />and seeding capability to be spread across Western Kansas from <br />Nebraska to Oklahoma. More important was that this set the stage for <br />a marked improvement in hail reduction and rain stimulation results. <br />Fig. 3 shows the current WKWMP organizational structure and sources <br />of funding. <br /> <br />Despite adding the area supported by Northwest Kansas GMD #4 <br />and Yuma County to the WKWMP and adding three additional aircraft, <br />the impact on our total operational design was little changed. The <br />changes were related mostly to the manner in how aircraft movements <br />were handled during seeding operations in order to seed storms most <br />effectively and efficiently over our large target area. <br /> <br />Total WKWMP operational activities divide into four major <br />categories: <br /> <br />A. Weather forecasting/operational planning/data collection <br /> <br />B. Weather surveillance - radar, satellite, TV and visual <br /> <br />C. Aircraft seeding operations and maintenance <br /> <br />D. Administrative and public relations <br /> <br />12 <br />