Researchers have been trying to definitively decide if it works ever since.Ī 2009 paper looking into cloud seeding in Tasmania found "the rainfall over the target was somewhere between 5 per cent and 13 per cent greater than over a nearby control region".Īnother peer reviewed paper suggested an average 14 per cent increase in rainfall due to the Snowy Mountain cloud seeding trials. But does it really work?Ĭloud seeding was first trialled in Australia in 1947 when the CSIRO got up in a light plane and released crushed dry ice into promising-looking clouds. Mr Pirozzi said the organisation did about 100 hours of burning a year, but it was highly variable and dependent on the conditions.Īt the Snowy Hydro cloud seeding was only done when conditions were right to make snow and not rain.įilling the dams was the top priority, but maintaining a good snowfield was seen as a welcome bonus of the program. They're almost like a barbecue on the back of the trailer." "Then we know that it will grow more quickly and those particles will grow to the size where they will precipitate appreciably, where you will get some meaningful precipitation from those clouds," Professor Siems said. This then helps the super-cooled water grow into snowflakes or raindrops ready to fall from the sky. The idea behind glaciogenic seeding is you take tiny little drops of super-cooled liquid water that are not growing efficiently enough to become rain drops and you convert them to ice by adding silver iodide. He said that the type of cloud seeding that had been found to be effective in Australia was "glaciogenic" cloud seeding. Professor Steven Siems of Monash University is one of Australia's leading cloud seeding experts and was involved with reviewing the 2016 event. It was later found by Hydro Tasmania's independent report that the seeding "had no measurable impact on precipitation" - a conclusion further supported by an independent expert that caused community backlash.Īfter all, why were they doing it if it does not work? How cloud seeding works In 2016, Hydro Tasmania conducted cloud seeding in the lead-up to deadly flooding in north-western Tasmania. Usually when it comes up, the debate is around if it actually works, but this time the stakes are higher than scientific curiosity, expense justification or environmental concerns.
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