Cloud Seeding Program

Cloud Seeding Equipment and Services

The DRI Cloud Seeding Program is operated from the Desert Research Institute Division of Atmospheric Sciences, located in the Northern Nevada Science Center (NNSC), Reno, Nevada. The project has 24-hour access to a broad base of National Weather Service (NWS) weather data through UNIDATA, a program managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). The data are received by the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) at DRI and are available through the WRCC web site.

In addition to the above NWS data products (supplied through UNIDATA and other sources), the data from remote weather stations on Slide Mountain, Ward Peak, the Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows Ski Resorts, on Conway Summit, and at a sites near the Ruby Mountains, Tuscarora, NV, and the Wassuk Mountains are continuously available through the Internet or telephone modem at the NNSC. Data from the Bureau of Land Management RAWS network, the Natural Resource Conservation Service SNOTEL network, and from a local NWS hydro-meteorological network are available through the WRCC on a near real time basis. The DRI Cloud Seeding Program maintains its own web page with the bulk of these weather data links.

The DRI meteorologist will also confer directly with National Weather Service forecasters and National Forest Service staff when flood or avalanche potential exists in any of the project areas. [See Operational and Safety Guidelines.]