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State meteorologist urges expansion of drone cloud seeding; contractor modeling suggests large but uncertain gains
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Summary
Jonathan Jennings of the Division of Water Resources described drone-based cloud seeding and said contractor modeling shows potential increases of 50,000–120,000 acre-feet in pilot basins; he cited modeled costs of $22–$47 per acre-foot and argued drone operations are materially cheaper than aircraft.
The committee heard a request to expand cloud-seeding work that would extend a Bear River Basin pilot into areas that feed the Great Salt Lake. Jonathan Jennings, a meteorologist with the Utah Division of Water Resources, said operational programs worldwide report precipitation increases of roughly 5%–15% from cloud seeding, and he described recent contractor modeling (Rainmaker Technology Corporation) that shows, to date, a modeled increase in the Bear River pilot on the order of 50,000 to 120,000 acre-feet.
Jennings warned the numbers should be viewed as modeled estimates and described planned third-party evaluation by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He said the program uses silver iodide to promote ice nucleation and targets mountain snowpack where roughly 95% of Utah’s water resources originate. He also described a shift to drone deployment for areas ground generators cannot reach; he said drone operations run “just south of $5,000 per hour” versus $15,000–$16,000 per hour for aircraft.
Committee members asked whether drone methods reduce costs per acre-foot; Jennings said the cost-per-acre-foot estimate he cited was for the pilot (drone-based) Bear River program and contrasted it to historical ground-based figures. Several members expressed support for additional evaluation and for combining cloud seeding with other water-augmentation and conservation efforts. The committee did not take a final funding vote in the transcript.
