Cheyenne – Wyoming’s state Water Development Commission moved along a $1.9 million contract for cloud seeding in Wyoming in hopes of increasing water supplies.
The contract was awarded Thursday to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research at Boulder for cloud-seeding work from 2005 to 2011 in the Wind River Mountains and in the vicinity of the Medicine Bow, Snowy and Sierra Madre mountain ranges.
The American Meteorological Society estimates that a well-conducted winter weather modification program can result in about a 10 percent increase in precipitation. The Legislature appropriated $8.8 million for a five-year weather modification pilot study.
“The real test will be if there’s more snow on the mountains,” said Rep. Owen Petersen, R-Mountain View, a member of the Legislature’s Select Water Committee.
The testing involves dispersing silver iodide into the clouds from aircraft or ground-based burners to speed up ice formation within the clouds.
