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<br />EVALUATION OF THE PRECIPITATION COMPONENT <br /> <br />Selection of An Ooerational Time Period Durin!! Which The Western Kansas Weather <br />Modification Prol!I"arn Was On!!oin!! <br /> <br />Two time periods were chosen for this evaluation effort. One time period was selected <br />to represent a period of time during which the Western Kansas Weather Modification <br />Program was operational. Although the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program <br />began cloud seeding operations in 1975, the initial years of the operation from 1975-1978 <br />were excluded from this analysis because cloud seeding operations were also being <br />conducted within a 90-mile radius of the Goodland area during 1975-1978. Hence, if <br />this time period for analysis were to begin in 1975, it would be necessary to exclude <br />several Northwest Kansas counties from the control area discussed below. Therefore. <br />precipitation records were analyzed for the time period from 1979-1993, which represents <br />a time period during which annual cloud seeding activities were taking place, in the <br />target area counties, as a result of the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program <br />and no such activities were occurring in the control area counties, listed below, or in any <br />location that might have an impact on precipitation in the control counties. <br /> <br />Selection of a Historical Time Period Prior to Oneration of the Western Kansas Weather <br />Modification Prol!I"arn. <br /> <br />A historical time period from 1941-1970 was selected for comparison purposes, which <br />represented a period of time duririg which no weather modification activities occurred in <br />the vicinity of the control or target areas. Since cloud seeding operations occurred from <br />1972-1978 in portions of the control area, it was necessary to end the historical period <br />in 1971 or before. <br /> <br />Studv Areas <br /> <br />A target area and a control area were selected as study areas for precipitation analyses. <br />The target area consisted of all counties that have fully participated in the Weather <br />Modification Program each year from 1979-1993. These six counties were: Finney, <br />Ford, Greeley, Haskell, Keamy and Lane. <br /> <br />Figure 1 shows the target area in dark shading and the control area in light shading. No <br />portion of the control area received any cloud seeding activity during either of the two <br />time periods used for this study and it was not likely that any of the control area would <br />have been impacted by any cloud seeding activities occurring outside of the control area <br />or within the target area during either of the two time periods. <br /> <br />The northern portion of the control area consisted of Cheyenne, Rawlins, Decatur, <br />Norton, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan and Graham counties in Kansas. <br /> <br />9 <br />