How This Man Pulled Rain From Oregon Skies

Any sort of weather manipulation will get a wide variety of reactions from people with very strong opinions on the subject. Some think all mentions of such things are purely conspiracy theory, others are convinced it happens all the time and is always a bad thing. As with most divisive subjects there's usually a place in the middle where the truth can be found.

I honestly didn't really know very much about what cloud seeding really was, and part of what I had heard was from the movie Twisters. Not a good source of information, I'll admit. After watching the interview on the Shawn Ryan Show I've become interested in learning more. Augustus Doricko is the CEO of Rainmaker and what he had to say about weather modification was fascinating. I had no idea how extensively China and other countries overseas are actively doing weather modification.

What does Rainmaker seek to do?

The team at Rainmaker is working with the Department of Natural Resources of some states to increase precipitation to help farmers have enough water, and try to bring more moisture to the environment in general in places that are too dry. They use drones to deliver aerosolized silver iodide. Their delivery system works without the flares that some others have used in the past, reducing the contaminants that enter the atmosphere. The silver iodide is similar in crystal structure to ice, making ice in the clouds readily stick to it, leading to more moisture being pulled from the cloud and falling out as snow or rain. They use radar systems and weather balloons to determine how much moisture is in the cloud. If there's moisture that is just not falling on its own, they are able to pull water out of the cloud with cloud seeding, and make it fall as snow, which then melts into rain if the temperature is warm enough. Their first success was December 12, 2024 in Pendleton, Oregon. They were able to get several drones going taking turns to deliver the silver iodide to the clouds. The graphic below from the Pendleton, Oregon National Weather Service office shows that more precipitation than normal fell at that time.

 How safe is Silver Iodide?

The Idaho Department of Water Resources explains cloud seeding and also says that silver iodide is non-reactive in the environment. It is also non-soluble in water, meaning it doesn't affect life in the water. Silver iodide is also used in other ways, like medicine and photography, and over the 80 years of cloud seeding no negative effects have been found.

Is this the way we can stop droughts, refill the aquifers, and increase farmable land or is it messing with nature too much? We'll find out soon enough as countries and now companies are directly intervening in the clouds.