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<br />Basic to the theory.of cloud seeding to suppress hail is the <br />conc~?pt that. when clouds at'e s\?eded it is aSSiLlmt~d thc1.t the seeding <br />agentl silver iodide, will be wel.l-diffused ~ithin the volume of <br />rising air that is capable of producing hail. Recent investigations <br />into severe storms indicate that wh~n silver iodide is burned into <br />very strong updrafts} it doesn't disperse into the volume of rising <br />air as well as it was earlier thought to have done. It was decided <br />that. better dispersal should occur if two aircraft were launched to <br />"gang-up" to seed the primary updraft areas of single severe storms <br />when such storms appear to be capable of producing hail. Only time <br />will bear out our concept. However, the empirical evidence this <br />season appears to be on our side: there were 4 more seeding days for <br />h~'\il 9uPPl"'essicl)1 in 1'3:36 thE~n in 19:35 and 74 mol"e h2~il suppr'ession <br />flights in 1986 than in 1985. Importantly, there were 4 fewer hail <br />days in 1986 than in 1985 and comparative numbers of hail instances in <br />identical target area counties, year-ta-year, lower by 397! <br /> <br />Finally, the one item that undoubtedly caused more flying this <br />year than anything else was the frequency of storm development. <br />Moisture in the summer of 1986 was abundant over western Kansas for an <br />inordinately long and sustaihed period of time----from late May through <br />the end of the program in mid-September. With moisture being the <br />pY'iHI.c.1.ry in,.;)r'edient. needed for st.orrn development} the e::.::pected hi';Jh <br />frequency of storms followed. The rainfall and hail distribution will <br />be coverd in the following sections. <br /> <br />In Appendix S, there is presented the Historic Monthly Number of <br />Seeding Days For Hail and/or Rain Augmentation. This table also lists <br />the dates of the program operation and on the bottom of tt,e table <br />lists the average, ma~<imum} and minimum seeding day information for <br />the l2-year period. <br /> <br />Append i)( C, <br />historic numbers <br />dispensed. S,:)ml= <br /> <br />shows a more comprehensive breakdown for the'. <br />of flight hours} seeding hours} and seeding agents <br />earlier monthly data is missing. <br /> <br />Appendix D, presents the historic listing of all the counties <br />that have participated in the W~(WM program at one time or another <br />throughout the past 12 seasons. <br /> <br />Appendix E is a copy of ttle il"lformation officially sent to the <br />National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as required by law, <br /> <br />19 <br />