WMOD00259

• Applicant: Western Kansas Groundwater Management
• Project Name: Western Kansas Weather Modification Program
• Date: 1/1/1999
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

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New severe storms moving southeasterly began forming in the Greeley County area and
between 9:45 and 10:02 p.m. 7 cloud base planes were scrambled plus the cloud top plane.
Seeding began in southwest Wichita County at 10:17 p.m. with a second joining at 10:22 p.m.
The storm complex moved over northwest Kearny County with another new severe storm cluster
forming in Hamilton County. Two others began seeding at 10:42 and 10:52 p.m. Northern
aircraft were turned back to their bases at 10:51 p.m. when it was apparent bad weather could
present a problem to them. All seeding by cloud base planes ended at 11: 10 p.m. due to the
deteriorating ceilings and visibility problem. July 1st: The operational day began after midnight
as a continuation of previous evening's operations. Unfortunately, upslope southeasterly flow of
moisture created below-minimum cloud ceilings and visibilities in drizzle and fog, preventing all
cloud base seeding planes from operating. Only the cloud top plane was able to operate and it was
seeding for hail on a large, southeasterly-moving storm complex north of Arapaho in Cheyenne
County Colorado. However, at 12:55 a.m. there was a problem with the ice dispenser on the
aircraft and it had to laild. Upon landing, it was learned there were other maintenance problems
and the cloud-top plane was effectively grounded until the problems could be corrected.

At the time the cloud top plane was seeding, there was another unseeded severe storm
complex in Greeley County which moved east into Wichita and Scott counties. The large storm
which was being seeded in Cheyenne County had an earlier history of passing over Burlington,
CO producing hail up to 2 3/4" in diameter. That same storm passed into Wallace County over
Sharon Springs, then Greeley, Wichita, Kearny and Finney counties, narrowly passing by the
Lakin radar site and hitting Garden City with massive damage from large hail. By the time the
storm had reached the central part of the southern area, it had become part of an E- W oriented
line of storms which continued pushing southerly toward the Oklahoma Panhandle.

At 4:06 a.m. two planes were scrambled in an attempt to seed severe storms along the
state line in western Hamilton County, however, low ceilings again moved in over the region and
safe flight was not possible.

NOTE: 499 hail-claims were received during the above period

This ends the newsletter accounts of the three most-damaging operational periods.

As seen on the map in Fig. 5, there were two main areas showing high hail claim numbers:
(1) the Central to west-Central Kansas counties of Barton, Rush, Ness and Pawnee, and (2) a
horseshoe-shaped cluster of counties in Northwest Kansas and North-Central Kansas represented
by Decatur, Sheridan, Graham, Rooks arid Phillips. The combined numbers of claims from these 2
areas, 8-countiesmwere 4,979 claims---amounting to 33% of all hail-claims in Kansas in 1999.

Ness County, in Central Kansas, reported 796 claims, the most claims of any county in the
entire State of Kansas. Barton County was second highest at 783 claims. This was Barton's
second straight year of being second-highest in the State; last year it had 609 claims. Late storms
in the season boosted Graham County to third with 674 claims. Sandwiched between Ness and

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