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<br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />time and seeding agent amount much lower for the season, it would seem to indicates the <br />Cheyenne's numbers should have been lower than in 1998, but such was not the case. If anything, <br />it outperformed what we would have gotten out of the Navajo, ifwe still had it. Also, the <br />program manager observed that the Cheyenne was able to reach seeding altitude and reach more <br />clouds quicker and stay airborne longer, when needed, than we ever did with the Navajo. <br /> <br />Operational numbers don't tell the entire story about the cloud seeding season. A few <br />major seeding events necessarily had to be passed up on because of below VFR minimum cloud <br />bases and visibilities which could have added significantly to this summary. <br /> <br />In catching up on some of the interesting oddities this season making comparisons <br />between both target areas, and to maintain a consistent record of what has happened in the <br />original target area, we found the following comparisons for the past three seasons of interest: <br /> <br />Number of Operational Seeding Days <br /> <br />I <br />II <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I I <br />II <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />Year <br />1997 <br />1998 <br />1999 <br />3-Year Average: <br /> <br />North <br />T arg;et <br />47 <br />44 <br />33 <br />41.3 <br /> <br />South <br />Target <br />66 <br />55 <br />62 <br />61 <br /> <br />Common <br />Ops Days <br />37 <br />15 <br />26 <br />26 <br /> <br />If the yearly sum of seeding days for only the southern target area were calculated as it is <br />on Appendix B, page 67, the 25-year average would be 55.3 days per season thereby indicating <br />we had another above average season, at least for the original area---the southern target area. <br /> <br />Long-term hail damage insurance claims suggest there are around 34 days per years on <br />average, when crop-damaging storms occur in both the northern and southern target areas. From <br />above, it is also seen that both 1998 and 1999 same day operations in both areas were below <br />average seasons. This year, of the ,all northern target area seeding days, there was seeding in the <br />southern area on about 88% ofthose days as well. This doesn't mean operations in both target <br />areas were done at the same time. On most (but not all) large damage days, operations were <br />conducted at different times in both areas thereby allowing for more aircraft to be sent to <br />whichever area needed them. Operationally, both seeding time and the amount of seeding agent <br />dispersed were dramatically lower than for any year since 1995 (See Appendix A, page 66). <br /> <br />24 <br />