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<br />high amounts of moisture, overall storm development was observed to be <br />generally more frequent than for "normal" seasons (Figs. #12 and #13). <br />One measure of this is our. June/July 1986 cloud seeding operations--- <br />the most active two-month period of operations of any of the previous <br />11 years. In Figure #13 August further stlOWS that higher moisture <br />fell in the southeastern and southern portions of the target area <br />while the north-central and central sections were comparatively dry. <br /> <br />In comparing the 1986 seasonal rainfall distribution (Fig. #13) to <br />that of 1985 (Fig. #14), it is seen there were relatively few areas <br />above normal in 1985 and, when it was, it usually wasn't much above <br />normal. The main area showing above normal moisture in 1985 lay in an <br />east-west band extending mainly over the counties of Hamilton, Kearny, <br />and western Finney. Other smaller areas of slightly greater than <br />normal rainfall were the in the northwest tip of the target area, the <br />southeast tip of Ford County, and near the northeastern part of the <br />target (Figure #14). All of this suggests that thunderstorm activity <br />(and rainfall) overall was much greater this year than last and has <br />implications fOI. the occur,.el1ce of hail as well. This will be <br />discussed in shortly in Section VI on Hail Distribution. <br /> <br />Also, in comparing the April through August rainfall totals <br />recorded over the WKWM observer network (Fig. #13) to the National <br />Weather Service total rainfall for the same months (F~g. #10), we see <br />no serious differences between them. Much higher rainfall amounts <br />occurred over most of western and southwestern Kansas despite the fact <br />that the southwest corner of Kansas is typically the driest area <br />within the State during the summer period. This year rainfall there <br />was seen to be around 8% to 33% higher than average (See Fig. #16). <br />The southeastern part of our WKWM target area~ around Ford Cou~ty, <br />recorded rainfalls up to 85% above normal. There were some are~s, as <br />usual, that didn't get their "fair share" of rainfall. Much of the <br />area with less rainfall was ifl the same region that received below <br />normal rainfall in 1985, making it at least two consecutive "dry" <br />years for them. The area of least rainfall seen in Figul~e #16 shows <br />a dry wedge extending from northern pl~rtions of Wichita, Scott, and <br />Lane counties southward into central Kearny County. <br /> <br />, <br /> <br />Figure #15 shows how many inches of rainfall a given area is <br />above or below normal---the extremes within the region. It is seen <br />that a fairly substantial portion of the north-central part of the <br />target is 6 inches, or more, below its norm for this 5-~~nth time <br />period; whereas, 6 - 10 inches above average is recored in the eastern <br />sections around Ford and Gray counties. SUMmertime rainfall is <br />variable! <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Interestingly enough. there have been two recent studies which <br />have observed that the rainfall recorded after over and downwind of a <br />particular target area~ after cloud seeding~ is related to the <br />"drynegs" or "wetness" of a given season (Gabriel and Mather), <br />(Jone5). Briefly, those studi~s sugge~ted that if rainfall in a <br />particular season is near, or above average,' cloud seeding effects of <br />increased rainfall appe~r much more evident during below average <br />years. These findings were from an inactive recent hail slJppression <br />program which lasted 10 years and, a currently active 15-year program <br />