Iran’s having a drought
And it’s a serious one; there’s been talk of possibly having to evacuate Tehran. So cloud-seeding was begun – and then came floods:
Rainfall caused floods in parts of western Iran on Monday, after months of drought led to the worst water crisis in decades and pushed authorities to begin cloud seeding over the weekend.
I’d heard of cloud seeding before, but it sounded to me like science fiction and I knew next to nothing about it. This doesn’t tell me much more, either:
Cloud-seeding is a process in which chemicals are implanted into clouds to increase rainfall in an environment where water scarcity is a concern.
However, the technique can only be applied when environmental conditions improve and can only be used as a stopgap solution.
“In addition to cloud seeding’s heavy cost, the amount of rainfall it produces is nowhere near what is needed to solve our water crisis,” Sahar Tajbakhsh, head of Iran’s Meteorological Organisation, told state TV on Sunday.
Not only that, but conditions in Tehran itself aren’t right for it to be used right now.
More:
Most cloud seeding operations … use a compound called silver iodide (AgI) to aid in the formation of ice crystals. Silver iodide exists naturally in the environment at low concentrations, and is not known to be harmful to humans or wildlife.
When storm systems move through one of our cloud seeding project areas, a solution containing a small amount of silver iodide is burned from ground-based generators or released from aircraft. Upon reaching the cloud, the silver iodide acts as an ice forming nuclei to aid in the production of snowflakes. …
… cloud seeding requires the presence of moisture-filled clouds.
How effective is cloud seeding? Nobody really knows.
The issue of cloud seeding came up this past summer after the severe flooding in Texas around July 4th. The cloud seeding had absolutely nothing to do with the actual flood, as it happened days before and downstream of the flooded area. However, that it happened created lots of coverage of what it is and how it works.
Essentially, you already need most of the conditions for rain for it to do anything. When you have that, then you have a cloud to seed, and that will cause that cloud to drop more of its moisture in the vicinity of the seeding. The overall amount of rain is the same, but you are controlling where it comes down by inducing the cloud to drop its moisture now rather than the natural rate that could cover a larger area.
Israel, meanwhile, is pumping desalinated fresh water from the eastern Mediterranean into the Sea of Galilee. Water planning, how does it work?
Go figure.
Here in California, we have learned that droughts are caused by politics and not by nature. California has refused to build new reservoirs over the last 50 years even though the population has increased by several times. The government also releases large amounts of freshwater from the reservoirs in the name of helping marginal fish species like Delta smelt. They also refuse to build seawater desalination plants because they believe that somehow the increased salt content of the runoff will harm the environment.
The mullahs in Iran are spending huge amounts of money financing their war against the United States and Israel. Their neighbors are building desalination plants. See this article
https://www.eurasiareview.com/18112025-iran-surrounded-by-water-with-nothing-to-drink-oped/
Iran also built a dam but it was located in a place that ruined the water by turning it brackish. There are long term effects which flooding rains will not help.
https://astudies.org/2023/05/gotvand-dam-environmental-catastrophe-and-human-tragedy-in-ahwaz-region/
The people of Iran: “We have no water. How about desalination plants?”
Ayatollahs: “Kill the Jews. We need more missiles.”
I had heard of silver iodide dropped from planes. That’s been around for a very long time. But delivered from the ground? That a new one, or I haven’t heard of it.
For 18 years I was the pastor of a small ministry with internationals (mostly graduate students and visiting scholars). We had English Conversation every Friday and I put together and taught most of the lessons. One week we used a new lesson about water. At the time we had host families who would open up their homes to 15-20 internationals and also provide snacks and drinks. On this occasion one of the hosts was a chemical engineering professor at Louisiana State who was an expert on water.
Boy did our international friends love that lesson and the discussion which followed. This was when we had three or four families from Iran. I had no idea getting enough water was such a huge problem for Iran.
Here’s the lesson = English Conversation Water 2016
My understanding of “seeding” appropriate cloud formations is that the success rate is approximately the same as using Elizabeth Warren to perform her “ancestral” rain dance. It closely approximates zero.
John Galt’s got the gist of it.
Of course, strictly for entertainment value, Israel could always offer its desalination assistance to the mullahs of invention.
(Would be rather “interesting” to see the response on that…but not too much imagination is required…. Actually, Israel would probably be censured by the UN for bad faith and/or piss-poor humor…
OTH, MTG is an expert on “Jewish” cloud seeding.
Why not ask her?
“the silver iodide [NOUN;SINGULAR] acts [VERB;SINGULAR] as an [more SINGULAR] ice forming nuclei[NOUN;PLURAL].”
Grammar, Meh.
Sloppiness at a high level.
Rick67, that looks like a neat batch of material. Thanks for sharing that.
Wilhelm Reich, the controversial, eccentric psychoanalyst theorized that there was a universal energy called orgone energy.
Furthermore, this orgone energy could be directed at clouds to create rain.
Reich and James DeMeo, a Ph.D who followed Reich, claimed to have success with cloudbusting, but not rigorously enough to convince scientists.
Kate Bush was moved by a memoir of Reich’s son, Peter Reich, to write a song about Peter, Reich and cloudbusting in one of her most remarkable songs:
–Kate Bush, “Cloudbusting – Official Music Video”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pllRW9wETzw
The video is gorgeous with Donald Sutherland playing Reich and Kate Bush playing the young Peter.
Almost no one knows the video is about real people and a real, even if it didn’t work, cloudbusting device.