It’s been a busy few days for an American-based company that tries to calm some of Calgary’s vicious thunderstorms.
Weather Modification has been seeding clouds in Calgary for the past sixteen years.
Not everyone believes the system works, but meteorologists with the operation say without their help, severe weather like the city saw on July 5thcould have been much worse.
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That evening, the company sent four of its aircraft into the sky, seeding the storm cells that produced heavy rain and hail in northwest Calgary.
Thursday night’s storm cell was aggressively seeded with silver iodide, a chemical agent released through flares and designed to create smaller sized hail.
Meteorologists with Weather Modification point out the hail on Thursday was relatively small, just pea-sized.
However, there are still skeptics, who don’t believe cloud seeding really works.
Weather modification operates out of the Olds-Didsbury airport.
Funding is provided by the insurance industry, which has seen a decline in hail damage claims since cloud seeding operations began in 1996.
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