Good moisture

[InAHurry]

The weather is still unsettled here. Thunder last night and a light shower for about half an hour, but it looks clear out this morning. Hope your part of Sask. gets some moisture Inahurry.

[cakadu]

We watched the thunder and lightning as two separate storms went around us and by each of the lakes. At the first sign of the first storm they were out seeding and the storm tracked around Gleniffer Lake. The second storm went to the north and around Sylvan Lake, so consequently we didn't even get enough moisture to make the ground wet.

The rain we got earlier in the week has really greened things up in the last couple of days, so it is wonderful to watch the pasture coming along. Maybe this year we will actually start to see some results from trying to graze sustainably.

[cowman]

So who is it seeding these storms? Is it the government footing the bill or is it private insurance companies?
What are they using to seed these clouds? Is it safe? I mean it must be coming down on someone somewhere, right?

[cakadu]

That's the problem cowman, we are told next to nothing about what happens with the cloud seeding. It is for sure the insurance companies that are paying for it because they stand to loose the most if - God forbid - a major storm happens.

As the general public, we actually have the right to be told about the process, but have any of you ever seen a news article, program or even a sound bite on what cloud seeding is all about, why it is continued to be practiced and what the possible benefits are? Grassfarmer came up with one information source and I spent quite some time on the Environment Canada website looking for more than just a smattering of information.

Personally, I would like to find out more about it because it happens in our area on a regular basis.

It's interesting to note that cloud seeding can also be used to precipitate rain, but it certainly hasn't been used in the last few years to bring rain to any drought-striken areas - at least not that I'm aware of anyway. About the only time it is used is to try and move the hazards to presumably less populated areas, but that doesn't always seem to work either, based on what we've seen. Look at the terrible storms both Edmonton and Calgary got last summer that caused millions of dollars in damage.

[cakadu]

Linda, why don't you speak to PAMZ, they may know a significant amount about the practice because they likely have very sophisticated weather stations where their air quality monitoring stations are located.

[cakadu]

Another inch of rain this evening in a thunderstorm with some pea sized hail.

Still raining and rumbling thunder off in the distance. Have flashlight and candles handy, our power is usually out for a couple of hours or more each time we get an electrical storm.

The pastures are coming along great, cows don't pay much attention to the hay and greenfeed anymore. This is the earliest in years that the pastures have been this far along by the May long weekend.