Evidence of widespread effects of cloud seeding at two Arizona experiments

The average effect of two cloud seeding experiments (1957-1960; 1961, 1962, and 1964) over the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, on the 24-hr precipitation at Walnut Gulch, 65 miles away, was an apparent 40% loss of rainfall (P = 0.025) on seeded, as opposed to not-seeded, experimental days. Larger apparent losses, some highly significant, were found for experimental days on which Walnut Gulch was downwind from the seeding site (but not on upwind days), and also on "second days" of the randomized pairs (but not on "first days"). The timing of significant apparent effects indicated that the afternoon maximum of precipitation, which is very pronounced on days without seeding, is either absent or weakened on days with seeding. This phenomenon was observed earlier in a study of the Whitetop Project.