{"id":34297,"date":"2023-04-29T01:55:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-29T07:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cloud-seeding-catching-on-amid-rocky-mountain-regions-two-decade-drought\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:17:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:17:20","slug":"cloud-seeding-catching-on-amid-rocky-mountain-regions-two-decade-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cloud-seeding-catching-on-amid-rocky-mountain-regions-two-decade-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloud seeding catching on amid Rocky Mountain region\u2019s two-decade drought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Carver
Carver Cammans installs cloud seeding equipment Dec. 3, 2022, in Lyons. The technique to get clouds to produce more snow is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

LYONS \u2013 Garrett Cammans and his brothers sometimes don\u2019t talk about their toughest moments on the job in the cloud seeding business, like the time when one of them got stuck in deep mountain snow and had to hike out alone in the dark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going out into some pretty remote and rural areas,\u201d Cammans said. \u201cAnd there have been a few close encounters with wildlife we don\u2019t like to discuss at the family dinner table.\u201d<\/p>\n

But snow \u2013 as much as possible \u2013 is at the heart of the Cammans\u2019 family business, Utah-based North American Weather Consultants, which holds cloud seeding contracts throughout the U.S. West, centered in the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n

\"Flames
Flames ignite on a cloud seeding device near Lyons on March 16. (Thomas Peipert\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lately, business is up. Amid two decades of drought, cloud seeding \u2013 using airplanes or ground equipment to waft rain-and-snow-making particles into clouds \u2013 is on the rise in the Rockies.<\/p>\n

Colorado has added three new programs in the last five years. Wyoming, which began seeding in 2014, added an aerial program in 2018. Utah has steadily increased its fleet of cloud seeding equipment, and the state Legislature just approved record funding<\/a> to further expand programs and research.<\/p>\n

No small part of the growth is due to intense pressure<\/a> drought is placing on the Colorado River and its tributaries that supply water to millions of people from Wyoming to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Not everybody believes cloud seeding is a worthwhile remedy. Some experts say conserving water is a better, more down-to-earth way to ensure enough water to go around. Juicing clouds to produce marginally more precipitation, they say, is an iffy alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always easier to talk about how to get more water than to talk about how to use less,\u201d said Kathryn Sorensen with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University in Tempe. \u201cWhen you look at the problem of over-allocation on the Colorado River, the numbers are so large that really the solutions lie in using less, particularly in the agricultural sector. Politically that\u2019s really painful to confront.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in the Rockies, cloud seeding these days has a full embrace from local and state officials eager for a not-too-expensive way to put more water in streams, rivers and especially the big Colorado River system reservoirs that hit record lows<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Their approach: shoot silver iodide into clouds, where moisture binds to the particles, forms ice and falls as snow. That snowpack high in the mountains serves as year-round cold storage for water that\u2019s released as it melts.<\/p>\n

In Wyoming, cloud seeding by plane attempts to increase snowpack on the west side of the Wind River Mountains, so snowmelt flows into the Green River and to communities downstream \u2013 eventually reaching the Colorado River and its reservoirs including Lake Powell and Lake Mead.<\/p>\n

\u201cCloud seeding generates water that wouldn\u2019t have been there before,\u201d said Bryan Seppie, general manager of the Joint Powers Water Board providing water to southwestern Wyoming communities. \u201cThat\u2019s just a benefit to the entire system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeah, but does it work?<\/div>\n

\"Fresh
Fresh snow blankets the Flatirons in Boulder, on March 16. Cloud seeding is a technique used to get clouds to produce more snow and is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. (Thomas Peipert\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

When the weather\u2019s dry and water\u2019s scarce in the West \u2013 where the saying goes that whiskey\u2019s for drinking and water is for fighting over \u2013 those with water rights established long ago get preference. And divvying up increasingly limited water has pitted states against each othe<\/a>r.<\/p>\n

Yet cloud seeding has emerged as a partial solution they can agree on.<\/p>\n

Water providers in the Lower Colorado River Basin contribute about $1.5 million annually<\/a> to cloud seeding in the Upper Basin, where snowmelt feeds the river. Recently, the federal government announced a $2.4 million contribution<\/a> to the effort, a nod to the desperate times.<\/p>\n

Despite the renewed attention, cloud seeding has been used around the world and in the Rockies for more than 50 years.<\/p>\n

Cloud seeding in the U.S. got \u201coversold\u201d and federal funding dried up in the 1990s and early 2000s, said Frank McDonough, a scientist at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada.<\/p>\n

\u201cWater folks at the local level knew it worked so they continued to fund it with states,\u201d McDonnough said. \u201cNow there\u2019s new evidence that shows it does work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> of Idaho aerial seeding in 2017 revealed a clear snowfall pattern on a radar that mirrored the seeding and offered evidence the method works.<\/p>\n

Utah has calculated the amount of additional water cloud seeding created there. It added 186,000 acre-feet of water, or nearly a 12% increase, to the state\u2019s supply in 2018, according to an analysis<\/a> by the Division of Water Resources. The agency says the cost was $2.18 per acre-foot \u2013 a fraction of the $20 California farmers pay for that amount of water.<\/p>\n

\"Cloud
Cloud seeding equipment is installed Dec. 3 in Lyons. Snow is at the heart of the Cammans family business, Utah-based North American Weather Consultants, which holds cloud seeding contracts throughout the Rocky Mountain region. (Brittany Peterson\/Associated Press file)<\/span>AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThat cost per acre-foot was so low, it\u2019s kind of a no-brainer,\u201d said Jake Serago, water resources engineer with the division.<\/p>\n

But Sarah Tessendorf of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said more research is needed to conclusively show how much additional water is created by cloud seeding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really common for people to want to know what extra percent of precipitation formed,\u201d said Tessendorf, a co-author of the Idaho cloud seeding study.<\/p>\n

Silver iodide can have a minimal impact in some clouds and a high impact in others, so how much is created over an entire winter season is what matters most, she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have answers on that yet, but we hope to have them in the next few years with our new computer model results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too much snow?<\/div>\n

In foothills north of Boulder, the first cloud seeding project of the rapidly growing Rocky Mountain Front Range urban corridor north and south of Denver is underway. This winter, two ground-based generators have been pumping silver iodide into the air for the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District.<\/p>\n

Each is a two-wheeled trailer containing a tank of silver iodide released by a roaring, propane-fueled flame atop a metal mast. There\u2019s a communications antenna for signals to turn the generator on and off, depending on conditions.<\/p>\n

The right conditions \u2013 wet weather headed upslope, from the east \u2013 have occurred a couple times a month, said Scott Griebling, a water resources engineer with the district.<\/p>\n

Lately in the Rockies, the problem isn\u2019t too little snow. Amid a wet spring, some cloud seeding generators have been shut down due to fears the heavy snowfall already is enough to cause flooding.<\/p>\n

Among those idled are generators in southern Wyoming\u2019s Sierra Madre Range, where snowpack is rivaling the deepest on record, said Jonathan Bowler with the Savery-Little Snake River Water Conservancy District that monitors runoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou kind of live and die by the moisture here,\u201d Bowler said. \u201cToo dry is one extreme and too wet is another. But kind of regardless of what it\u2019s going to give you, you just kind of have to make do.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Wyoming Water Development Commission in charge of the state\u2019s cloud seeding program, the long-term averages are what\u2019s important, Chairman Ron Kailey Jr. said. \u201cYou have to take in the good years, the bad years and everything in between to determine how successful the program is,\u201d said Kailey.<\/p>\n

Springing into action<\/div>\n

\"Brothers
Brothers Parker, left, and Carver Cammans install cloud seeding equipment Saturday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Lyons, Colo. The technique to get clouds to produce more snow is being used more as the Rocky Mountain region struggles with a two-decade drought. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/span>Brittany Peterson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

North American Weather Consultants has been cloud seeding for over 40 years. Cammans, who has a background in physics, chemistry and computer software, bought the company four years ago.<\/p>\n

After expanding locations, including to the Colorado Front Range for the Boulder-area pilot program, North American Weather Consultants now has about 250 ground-based sites and two planes in use across the Western U.S. Cammans now has about 20 employees including meteorologists and his brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce seedable conditions do occur, then we spring into operation,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a pilot that will go up and fly if conditions are favorable for aerial seeding. We\u2019ve got remotely operated equipment that meteorologists can operate from their home offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the company\u2019s ground-based generators are turned on and off manually by about 150 paid contractors, some on their own land.<\/p>\n

Cammans often reserves those toughest jobs for his brothers Parker and Carver, who drive trucks with knobby, 35-inch tires suited for snow and mud.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get to do some of our most exciting and more precarious work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Technique has been used around the world and in the Rockies for more than 50 years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1164,295,294,414,1163],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-snow","tag-water","tag-water-supply","tag-weather","tag-weather-science"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82548,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34297\/revisions\/82548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34297"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}