Great article, and I love the demo video on cloud seeding. Agreed – the problem with cloud seeding is that it really only works where it was going to rain anyway since the moisture in the air was available. It would be foolish to expect that providing a nucleation site for cloud formation in arid regions (where the water is needed most) would produce rain.
Especially appreciate this: “However, before we conclude that climate change definintely contributed, detailed attribution studies are essential to determine precisely how much of an impact climate change had on any specific weather events.” It seems climate change is now a foregone conclusion in the way extreme weather events are portrayed, even if the evidence (as you mention) isn’t quite there in some (or many? Please inform) cases. Is this just the nature of the media these days, and we therefore have to accept it? Or do you think people are capable of understanding the nuance? It seems like crying “climate change” every time there is an extreme weather event, in the absence of evidence for such, could come back to bite us, like the boy crying wolf. I’d love to see a post from you assessing this phenomenon and what we might do about it, if you’re so inclined. Even in my field of wildlife disease ecology, people are eager to find climate change as a contributing factor. Sometimes it is; but sometimes it’s not. If we are too eager to blame climate change for *everything*, we may just miss other—just as important—causative factors.
Here is what is understood: According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group/Fire Weather Publication, “Clouds and Precipitation”
“Over an area the size of Oregon, 1 inch of rain is equivalent to nearly 8 billion tons of water. All of this water comes from condensation of vapor in the atmosphere. For each ton of water that condenses, almost 2 million B.T.U.’s of latent heat is released to the atmosphere. It becomes obvious that tremendous quantities of water and energy are involved in the formation of clouds and precipitation.
Great article, and I love the demo video on cloud seeding. Agreed – the problem with cloud seeding is that it really only works where it was going to rain anyway since the moisture in the air was available. It would be foolish to expect that providing a nucleation site for cloud formation in arid regions (where the water is needed most) would produce rain.
"Step back non-believers or the rain will never come"
- Tanya Tucker ; Lizzie and the Rainman
https://genius.com/Tanya-tucker-lizzie-and-the-rainman-lyrics
Especially appreciate this: “However, before we conclude that climate change definintely contributed, detailed attribution studies are essential to determine precisely how much of an impact climate change had on any specific weather events.” It seems climate change is now a foregone conclusion in the way extreme weather events are portrayed, even if the evidence (as you mention) isn’t quite there in some (or many? Please inform) cases. Is this just the nature of the media these days, and we therefore have to accept it? Or do you think people are capable of understanding the nuance? It seems like crying “climate change” every time there is an extreme weather event, in the absence of evidence for such, could come back to bite us, like the boy crying wolf. I’d love to see a post from you assessing this phenomenon and what we might do about it, if you’re so inclined. Even in my field of wildlife disease ecology, people are eager to find climate change as a contributing factor. Sometimes it is; but sometimes it’s not. If we are too eager to blame climate change for *everything*, we may just miss other—just as important—causative factors.
Here is what is understood: According to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group/Fire Weather Publication, “Clouds and Precipitation”
“Over an area the size of Oregon, 1 inch of rain is equivalent to nearly 8 billion tons of water. All of this water comes from condensation of vapor in the atmosphere. For each ton of water that condenses, almost 2 million B.T.U.’s of latent heat is released to the atmosphere. It becomes obvious that tremendous quantities of water and energy are involved in the formation of clouds and precipitation.
Dubai is unique among nations in not requiring aircraft for cloud seeding- many citizens can do so from the comfort of their own homes :
https://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2024/04/travels-in-arabia-deserta-volume-thre.html