Bonneville County Commissioner - Dave Radford

Cloud seeding is based on chemistry and meteorology, but to Craig Powell, getting more moisture is a matter of firing up his butane lighter.

As one of 21 cloud-seeding generator operators, Powell's two-minute trips to light an Island Park generator are designed to draw increased precipitation from above.

In conjunction with High Country Resource Conservation and Development, cloud seeding is one of Bonneville County's prime projects this year.  Based on budget restraints and climate consideration, generators operate only during the stormy winder season.

This year's operation ran from Dec. 1, 2007, to March 31 and clocked 4,000 hours of generator operation.  Seeding pulls more moisture from storms, and officials are hoping a five-year study will show a 4 to 7 percent increase in the region's precipitation during the cloud-seeding season, Bonneville County Commissioner Dave Radford said.  Powell said he's noticed a difference in this season's snowfall.  "Let's put it this way: You can't see the north side of my cabin - I've got snow over it," he said.  "This is the most snow we've had since 1996."

Cloud seeding relies on ground-based generators fitted with a propane tank that send a smoke plume of acetone and silver iodide into the atmosphere.  The silver iodide bonds with water particles, crystallizing to draw more water from a storm system.

Generators, twice the size of normal barbecues, are housed on private land usually over 6,000 feet in elevation and operated by volunteers. The landowners and operators are paid for their land and time.

Bonneville, Jefferson, Madison, Fremont, and Clark counties are partnering for the project, but any entity relying on the upper Snake River aquifer benefits from the increased precipitation, Radford said.

Effective cloud seeding relies on precise weather conditions.  Clark County maintains day-to-day project operations and hired Let It Snow owners Marty and Conni Owen to watch the weather and make decisions about turning generators on and off.  The temperature near the generator must be above 20 and below 38 degrees; colder than that, and the storm will just produce "frosting," and the goal is increased snow pack, Marty said.  Wind can also cause a problem, as it can extinguish the generator's flame.

Although the Owens have been trained in the necessary meteorology, those nearest the generators often know when conditions are best for turning on generators.  Property owners call when storms approach, and the Owens give them the go-ahead for generator operation if conditions prove suitable.

The first seeding program in the region started in 1993 but was primarily a response to drought conditions - an ineffective approach because storms weren't frequent, High Country RC&D project coordinator Steve Smart said.  "Cloud seeders don't bust droughts," he said.

Project facilitators are hoping to capitalize on the wet winter just ending, and all clouds require seeding to produce optimal amounts of moisture, Smart said.

One partner making the project possible is Idaho Department of Water Resources, which pitched in $10,000 towards a $12,000 statistical analysis.  The program needs to be analyzed for five years to determine effectiveness, Radford said, and having the state offset the analysis cost helps facilitate the study.

The project is a proactive approach for county commissioners, who believe increased water will reduce court squabbles over water rights.  And with this year being wetter than several previous years, commissioners hope the project will contribute to the trend.  "After seven years of drought you almost want to say, ‘Let's have seven years of fat,'" Radford said.