As heavy rains persist in Texas following the deadly July 4 floods, the state has suspended all cloud seeding operations amid above-average publicity for the otherwise little-known technology.
Cloud seeding, a weather modification technique discovered in the 1940s by General Electric researchers, inserts small chemical particles into clouds to encourage ice formations that fall to the earth as either snow or rain, depending on the season.
This process relies on a simple core principle: For rain to occur, the small droplets in clouds must condense into larger ice crystals and become heavy enough to fall to the ground. As these ice crystals fall, they pick up more water on the way and eventually melt into rain. The “basic idea” of cloud seeding is to provide particles (typically silver iodide) onto which ice can form, thus triggering the rainmaking process, said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist and director of the Southern Regional Climate Center.
For more than 75 years, cloud seeding has been used across the country to varying levels of success. Today, nine states have active cloud seeding programs: California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas and North Dakota. Of these, only Texas, North Dakota and New Mexico participate in warm-season cloud seeding, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Around 50 countries dabble in cloud seeding technology, with China holding the spot for the world’s largest weather modification program.
In the Rocky Mountains, cold-season cloud seeding increases snowfall from clouds hanging over mountain tops and warm-season seeding aims to increase rainfall and/or reduce hail damage.
Though seven cloud seeding projects are underway throughout Texas, all cloud seeding projects in the state are currently suspended due to the flooding. This comes after media attention has spiraled into conspiracy theories related to a cloud seeding company that conducted operations in the Hill Country two days prior to flash flooding that has claimed over 130 lives so far. Even Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has weighed in, calling for “an end to the conspiracy theories” and for individuals to “stop blaming others” in a recent statement.
One suspended project is the Panhandle Water Conservation District, which covers more than 4 million acres across eight counties. Britney Britten, district general manager, said the pause is “mindful” of the situation but not implying that cloud seeding had anything to do with the floods.
“One of the most common misconceptions is that we just kind of go up there and make it rain wherever,” Britten said. “Trust me, if that were the case, then we wouldn't have any droughts.”
To seed or not to seed
Though it varies, cloud seeding typically results in precipitation enhancement of around 5% and is entirely dependent on the amount of clouds present, Nielsen-Gammon said.
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“You're not going to be able to generate a rainstorm out of a clear sky,” he told Agri-Pulse. “It's just a slight tweak to an individual cloud.”
Because the presence of clouds is necessary for seeding, it’s no help for ending a dry spell.
“It's unfortunately not really insurance against drought, because it’s least effective during a drought,” he said. “But on the other hand, when you have a drought, every bit of rain matters.”
Even if not a stand-alone solution, certain cloud seeding projects have succeeded in terms of helping ag producers, such as the case of the North Dakota Cloud Modification Project, which was established in 1951. The project operates under a “dual purpose mission” of hail suppression and rain enhancement, said Mark Schneider, the program’s chief meteorologist.
Over the 1989-2018 period, cloud-seeded counties in North Dakota experienced wheat yields 13% higher, on average, than those in non-cloud-seeded counties, according to a study evaluating the project’s hail suppression effectiveness. Schneider told Agri-Pulse that the project is able to produce an additional inch of rain in their target area in a three-month summer season.
“That little percentage increase over a large area is really significant,” Schneider said.
Precipitation enhancement in the Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle team practices base seeding, which involves dispersing minerals at the bottom of the cloud. Britten said they eject the minerals when there isn’t rain but there is an updraft, which forces the silver iodide into the cloud.
In 2024 the Panhandle team seeded for 32 days and completed 38 seeding missions, and prior to the state-wide suspension, they were in the middle of the 2025 seeding season, which runs from April to September. On average, the project seeds about 20 days in each six-month season of the project, which Britten told Agri-Pulse was “limited in both area and duration.”
For all the hubbub around cloud seeding at the moment, Britten said the Panhandle project has had very little community pushback in recent years—in fact, the last few permit renewals for the program have had “zero” public comments, a change from the past.
Part of the reason for this support lies in how the project bolsters agriculture, the primary economic driver in the Panhandle, he said. One of the primary concerns of the Panhandle project is the viability of the Ogallala Aquifer, which has seen high depletion in recent years.
A program goal is increasing rainfall so that farmers rely less on groundwater for irrigation, Britten said. In 2024 the Panhandle project saw a 13.5% increase in rainfall over its district.
“We always want to try and help the people in our district,” Britten said. “We're not evil people up here trying to manipulate things. … We are just trying to help nature along.”
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