Drone cloud-seeding pitched for La Sal and Abajo ranges; county asked to consider funding

Rainmaker Technology representatives told the Grand County Commission on Oct. 7 they are ready to run a drone-based cloud-seeding pilot over the La Sal and Abajo ranges starting Nov. 1 and asked the county to consider contributing to the program’s local funding share.

The company’s project director, Jared Smith, said the technology uses weatherized drones to fly into icing clouds and disperse silver iodide to convert supercooled droplets into ice crystals. “The solution, from our perspective, is in the sky,” Smith said, describing the approach as a way to increase seasonal snowpack by roughly 10–20 percent in some areas based on historical studies of cloud-seeding programs.

Why it matters: State officials have agreed to pay the bulk of first-year costs for a pilot in the region, Smith said — roughly $350,000 of an estimated $400,000…