Houston Texas is getting severe flooding tonight

Texas has a lengthy history of using cloud seeding to lessen the impact of periodic, often severe, droughts. Numerous “rainmaking” efforts sprouted during the epic drought of the 1950s, and some continued into the 1960s, giving impetus to the Texas Legislature to adopt a law, in 1967, governing the use of weather modification technologies. In ensuing years, both the State and federal governments provided funds for both cloud seeding research and assessing the impact of commercial weather modification projects.

With more substantive evidence that cloud seeding, when performed in timely and appropriate ways, could invigorate convective clouds, promoting their growth and capacity to produce rainwater, a coordinated, State-funded program began in earnest in the latter half of the 1990s. Today, with drought a pending, if not ever present, threat to the economy and well-being of Texans, rain enhancement projects flourish within large areas of Northwest, West, and South Texas. In fact, the seven cloud seeding projects today cover about 31 million acres (or about one-sixth of the land area of the state). When drought was a greater threat a decade ago, as many as 51 million acres were included in cloud seeding “target” areas in the state.