'Seeding' of Clouds—Not an Effective Way

The rain is very precious for various developments of the country, especially in the desert areas. That's why scientists use 'cloud seeding'. It is a weather modification process to accelerate rainfall. It increases the amount of precipitation by chemical dispersion in the clouds.

But according to a recent research, this cloud seeding, with chemicals such as silver iodide and frozen carbon dioxide, is not so effective as it was hoped until now. The research came to the conclusion by studying the data and statistics of over fifty years of the rainfall over the Sea of Galilee in the north of Israel. A comparison was made between seeding and non-seeding rainfall.

There are more than 80 seeding cloud seeding projects around the globe, but there is no proof that this method is successful in doing its purpose. But according to this study there is a kind of place where it can likely be successfully used is when seeding is done on orographic clouds. These are the clouds which form over the mountains and have a short lifespan. In this type of cloud, seeding can enhance the process of precipitation.