Despite the hopes of UCSB students, this the weather—while sunnier than the last quarter—has been cold and cloudy. Getting dressed for class has been a nightmare since the mornings are frigid and foggy and the early evenings call for tank tops and shorts. Confusing right? On top of this, many of my weekend plans have been dashed by the rain.
When complaining about how it only seems to rain on the weekends and how it does not match the weather patterns of the rest of the week, my housemate brought up an interesting phenomenon: cloud seeding.
Cloud seeding is defined as, “a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation, mitigate hail, or disperse fog. The usual objective is to increase rain or snow.” Cloud seeding has evolved into a potential solution to droughts, a tool for firefighting, and a catalyst for weather modification. This is a leading cause of the increase in rain in Santa Barbara.
I was shocked as I had never heard of cloud seeding before. After learning about it, it made total sense. While it is easy to understand the concept itself, the way it works is more complicated:
Cloud seeding relies on the presence of natural clouds. Using these clouds, rain can be artificially generated by implanting clouds with particles such as silver iodide crystals. Cloud seeding is usually initiated by dropping these particles from a plane. Using weather forecasting techniques, suitable clouds are identified, and if the conditions are appropriate and suitable, cloud seeding can modify these clouds and induce rain.
Cloud seeding has contributed to lessening the effects of the drought in California as well as in other areas in the world where rain is scarce. Aside from aiding the drought, cloud seeding has also aided in suppressing wildfires and other environmental hazards.
The key aspect in this is that cloud seeding can work in two ways: by producing rain when none would naturally occur, or by increasing the amount of rain that falls over a particular area.
I found that to be incredibly interesting because going into the spring season in Santa Barbara, I envisioned clear blue skies every day. The current weather could not be more different.
While I am accustomed to the stormy and rainy winters that come with being in Santa Barbara, a rainy spring is a big bummer.
“The Santa Barbara County Water Agency (SBCWA) conducts a precipitation enhancement program, also known as “cloud seeding,” to augment natural precipitation to increase surface water runoff in watersheds behind the major water reservoirs. These reservoirs include Cachuma Reservoir, Gibraltar Dam, and Jameson Reservoir on the Santa Ynez River and Twitchell Reservoir on the Cuyama River near Santa Maria. The Department of Water Resources outlines the benefits of precipitation enhancement in the Resources Management Strategies of the California Water Plan.”
The County of Santa Barbara Public Works
With only a few weeks left in the quarter, I have now grown suspicious of the rain. Is it happening on its own? Or is this cloud seeding actively at work? I will honestly never know, but when it rains I feel like I’m in on a little secret since cloud seeding seems to be relatively unknown.
Cloud seeding is a cool phenomenon, and of course, I understand its environmental benefits, but selfishly, as spring quarter is quickly coming to a close, I cannot help but think: rain, rain, go away – don’t come back another day!