Cloud Seeding: Culprit or Wrongly Accused

Recently, the #UAE and #Oman experienced a severe storm, which caused record-breaking rainfall and subsequent damage. This event has sparked a debate on whether this event was triggered by cloud seeding practices. Let’s delve deeper into this subject.

What is Cloud Seeding?

Cloud seeding has been in debates for water-starved regions like Dubai for decades. This technique injects particles like silver iodide or salt crystals into clouds to trigger rain. Governments in the Western US and the UAE are looking to cloud seeding as a water resource management strategy, aiming to add to existing moisture in clouds, potentially leading to more rainfall.

What led people to believe that Cloud Seeding was responsible for this phenomenon?

Some attributed the heavy downpour to cloud seeding, spurred by alleged reports quoting meteorologists at the UAE's National Centre for Meteorology (NCM) indicating that Dubai conducted several cloud-seeding flights before the rainfall. Flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press revealed an active aircraft involved in the UAE's cloud-seeding operations.

What do experts have to say about this?

Records indicate that the storm, which moved slowly across the Arabian Peninsula and into the Gulf of Oman over several days, gathered tropical moisture near the equator and released it heavily over the region.

Experts believe that it is climate change that has caused this phenomenon. Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, explains that increased rainfall intensity worldwide is a consequence of a warmer climate, which allows the atmosphere to retain more moisture. She clarifies that it is incorrect to blame heavy rainfall on cloud seeding since it does not generate clouds from anything but enables existing atmospheric moisture to condense into clouds.

Mark Howden, Director at the Australian National University's Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions, notes that global warming has heated the waters around Dubai. This, combined with warm air above, enhances evaporation rates, leading to more significant rainfall events. Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, remarked that if cloud seeding were responsible for this phenomenon, there would be constant rainfall. He emphasized that it is not possible to generate rain from nothing and achieve six inches of precipitation. Furthermore, heavy rainfall appeared in forecast models a day in advance, and when such intense forecasts are made, cloud seeding is not typically undertaken.

In conclusion

Around 50 countries, including the US, China, and India, utilize cloud seeding as a potential way to increase rainfall. However, cloud seeding remains integral to discussions surrounding water resource management and climate resilience, necessitating careful implementation and ongoing scientific investigation. Despite unremitting studies and debates among meteorologists, it's critical to note that cloud seeding is not the direct cause of heavy rainfall.

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