The status of a hail suppression program in Texas

The weather modification program sponsored by Better Weather Incorporated was conceived in 1970 as a result of investigations by concerned farmers into the status of modern cloud seeding technology. During the 1970-1972 period, BWI joined with the Plains Weather Improvement Association of Plainview, Texas, in a program designed primarily to reduce hail damage over portions of Hale and Lamb Counties plus smaller adjacent areas. During the 1973-74 period, BWI separated their program from the PWIA group and continued with the services of Atmospherics Incorporated of Fresno, California for an expanded and upgraded program headquartered at Littlefield, Texas. The program has continued to use radar equipment as a supervisory and evaluation tool. The actual seeding has been limited to the airborne dispersal of silver iodide at specific inflow areas near cloud base. A number of general and statistical evaluations have been conducted independently by respected scientists working in the fields of meteorology, climatology, hydrology and statistics. These analyses have shown at a reasonably high significance level that (I) numbers of hail days per season appear to have been reduced, (2) hail damage appears to have been reduced in the range of 40% - 50% and (3) the rainfall within and adjacent to the protected area has not been modified.