With the dry conditions out west and the rainy season nearly finished, water managers out there are worried about how to provide water for the thirsty citizens and crops that live and grow there in the dry land. In past years, the snowpack that accumulated over the winter provided irrigation water as they slowly melted over the summer, but this year the snowpack is only a fraction of what it was in past years. Scientists are turning to cloud seeding to increase the amount of water that is in the snowpack so that they will have more water available this summer. Cloud seeding does not make it rain from a clear sky, however, and the clouds have to be right for rainmaking to work. CNN posted a story this week about recent cloud seeding efforts going on out west and their hopes that it will provide extra water for farmers this year in a very agriculturally important part of the United States.
