This season, they have gone on 28 flight missions for cloud seeding in Wyoming. This photo shows flares fixed on the aircraft's wing that house the silver iodide used for cloud seeding. Weather Modification International 2022Once the pilot flies into the storm, they ignite the cardboard casings full of silver iodide and “seed” the clouds. Their results, published in 2020 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, managed to quantify how effective cloud seeding is. The amount of precipitation produced by cloud seeding — up to 10% — isn’t enough at all to quench the drought-stricken West.

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