How Cloud-Seeding Boosted California's Latest El Niño Storms

Don’t be too quick to thank El Niño for the last wave of storms that blessed the West Coast with swamped reservoirs, replenished snowpack, and spectacular flaming palm trees. Turns out that El Niño had a little help—precipitation was increased by an estimated 15 percent thanks to cloud-seeding.

According to the Los Angeles Times, LA’s Department of Public Works and North American Weather Consultants cranked up to 10 cloud-seeding machines into action Sunday night as the storm rolled through, which ended up dumping plenty of rain and snow in the region.

Seeding clouds is a relatively simple process: Devices either mounted on the ground or installed on planes spray silver iodide into the moist air, which allows the air to form ice particles at warmer temperatures. This accelerates a process called cloud condensation, where water vapor globs onto those particles, making clouds more likely to produce droplets of precipitation.

Read more @ http://gizmodo.com/how-cloud-seeding-boosted-californias-latest-el-nino-st-1763847134


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