KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Money Finds New Life for Cloud Seeding Program
Member Center:
Earlier this year the cloud seeding programs in Nevada were stopped because of budget cuts, but now they have new life.
The Desert Research Institute uses seeding stations to send silver iodide particles into the clouds to make them produce more moisture in the winter.
DRI says they don't have all the money needed to run the stations all winter yet, but they do have enough to get them going now while they look for other funding for the rest of the season.
Meantime, the Southern Nevada Water Authority is reviving a $900,000 program that puts six seeding stations in the Ruby Mountains southeast of Elko and one in the Tuscarora Mountains northwest of elko.
DRI says cloud seeding on average produces more than 15,000 extra acre-feet of water a year in the Ruby Mountains and more than 6,000 in the in the Tuscarora Mountains.
One acre-foot of water is enough to supply two average Las Vegas homes for one year.
