From his offices in Fresno, Steve Johnson explained how cloud seeders spent one of the driest Januaries on record:
“We’d look at the forecast maps and pray,” he said.
Johnson’s planes are soaring over the Sierra Nevada once again this week, scattering silver iodide particles to squeeze just a bit more snow out of some long-awaited storms.
The twin-engine planes have been frozen to the ground for the most part this winter, said Johnson, general manager of Atmospherics Incorporated, a “weather modification” company. Cloud seeding is no use if there aren’t any clouds.
When conditions are right, however, cloud seeding across California can bolster the state’s runoff by perhaps 3 percent to 4 percent. And that could be important this year, with the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada a measly 40 percent of normal.
To read more on this story from staff writer Alex Breitler, read Saturday’s Record.