Cloud seeding 1
Water in Idaho is a massive concern for the ag sector. In short, long term drought appears to have appeared and needs to e remedied. In the next few days we’re going to take a look at Cloud Seeding which has been around for about 80 years. Here in Idaho it’s used in the winter to generate snow, which means more water for irrigation and for power generation.
Some people have concerns about how cloud seeding works and whether it is safe. This video tries to answer the basic questions people have.
Verbatim:
(Augustus Doriko, CEO of Rainmaker) “If you look at the state of water supply in the American West, right, Some years it's a boom year, some years it's a bust year, but decade over decade, there's less snowpack in the mountains, there's less flow in the rivers, there's less water in the aquifers, right? Like these things are all more and more true every year. “
(Jeff Raybould, Idaho Water Resource Board) “We all need more water. Whether we live in town or we live out on the farm, we need to have adequate water for our needs.”
In Idaho much of that needed water comes from snowpack, and cloud seeding is used to help increase snowfall. Even though cloud seeding has been around a long time, some folks have concerns about how it works and whether it is safe. We’ll try to give the basics in this video.
First, WHAT IS CLOUD SEEDING?
Could seeding began in the late 1940’s when scientists were researching icing on aircraft. They discovered tiny particles could be used to produce ice. First using a freezer and dry ice they were able to create snow in a laboratory, later testing it on a real cloud in 1947. They later discovered that silver iodide was even more effective at generating ice formation.
So HOW DOES IT WORK? First, you need a cloud… more specifically… a storm cloud.
(Derek Blestrud, Idaho Power Senior Atmospheric Scientist) “Every storm can't be seeded. We need a storm, first of all, to seed, but then that storm has to have specific weather conditions that are suitable for seeding.”
