High Tech Solution: Can Drones Bring Utah More Moisture?

Utah is always in need of more rain and snow to provide water for the lakes and reservoirs. Conservation efforts help preserve the flow of H2O but what if we could get more from the clouds? 

Squeezing More Moisture from a Storm 

Only about 1% of the moisture in a storm system that passes over Utah actually falls as precipitation. If there was to get more of that to fall, it could help the snow pack every year in the beehive state. 

Cloud seeding is the practice of releasing silver iodide as a powder into the storm. This gives the moisture something to form around and then turn to ice crystals and fall to the ground as snow. It has the potential to get more out of a storm. 

How to Get the Silver Iodide into Such a Massive Area

In the past, cloud seeding has been done with airplanes with limited success. Storms are huge and getting it seeded can be cost prohibitive for the benefit. With the production of low-cost drones, it makes more things possible. 

In an article from Fox 13, it describes how the legislature has dedicated more money to explore the latest advances in cloud seeding. Picture a fleet drones like you see at a July 4th celebration delivering the silver iodide powder into a cloud bank. It could have a big impact. 

Read More: Water Is Scarce In Utah: Is Collecting it Outlawed?

Of course, there would need to be a storm system in the first place, but if this method could double the moisture dropped or even bring multiple times that to the mountains, it could make a big difference for the state.