Expert: Cloud Seeding Increased Recent Snowfall

The man who operates a cloud seeding program for Denver Water said that up to 4 inches of the weekend snowfall can be credited to the program.

Larry Hjermstad said the recent clouds were seeded and that resulted in an additional 10 to 20 percent of snow out of the system.

The weekend's storm left between 1 and 2 feet of snow in Eagle and Summit counties, where cloud-seeding generators are located.

Hjermstad said the seeding program began Nov. 1.

"The permit was to start the first of November, and that's when the weather came in," Hjermstad told the Summit Daily News. "It was almost waiting for us."

The snowfall to date this year is already about 40 percent of last year's total accumulation at one location in Summit County, according to the National Weather Service. A snow gauge at Dillon Reservoir has recorded 25 inches already this season. The total snowfall recorded last season was just 64.5 inches.

Denver Water joined the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District and the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District to seed clouds in a number of mountain areas. The agencies signed a $700,000 contract with Hjermstad, who has cloud-seeded for the Vail ski area for 27 years.

According to the contract, 41 generators were placed throughout the mountain region. The generators release silver iodide into the air when storm clouds pass. If conditions are right, the ice forms on the silver iodide crystals which them become snowflakes and fall to Earth.

When Hjermstad determines conditions are right for cloud seeding, he calls property owners where the generators are located and asks them to turn on the machines.