In last week’s Finder, an anonymous writer posed the question about other counties not pounding down the door to join a weather modification program if it were so good. The answer is precisely that the program IS so good. Several years ago, Adams County and Hettinger County were part of the existing Hail Suppression program. After a period of time, there was a movement to withdraw from the program. Marlene Kouba from Hettinger County, (whom you’ve heard from before), and I were part of a campaign to retain the program in Hettinger and Adams counties. We held meetings, forums and put advertisements in the local papers, made calls and found that the responses from other than the totally uninformed were that the downwind counties were receiving a free benefit from the upwind counties due to the weather modification efforts. In other words, “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Currently, the technology is such that cloud seeding programs can now terminate most of the benefits at the edge of the target area saving time, money and seeding material. With that ability to stop the seeding effect at the county line, the two downwind counties are now experiencing more and more hail damage. The damage goes up and down in those areas year to year, but the trend is higher losses. The folks in those counties were tired of the conflict and elected to stay on the sidelines.
So, Anonymous Writer, a cloud seeding DOES increase rainfall and decrease hail damage, it’s a scientifically proven fact. Your sentence in the Finder is misleading and unfounded and you still can’t defend your position. Do some research before posting such nonsense and find out how people think on the issue.
Please remember, it takes a NO vote to keep Hail Suppression and the local Bowman Radar.
NO means you want less hail damage. NO means you reject banning Weather Modification. NO means you believe in the science and not in the “rabbit in the hat” or “I don’t need to be educated, I just know what I see” fallacies. Vote NO to keep economic benefits in Bowman County.
- Bart Fisher, Bowman
