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The Snowmaker
Aired December 02, 2003 - 15:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they say it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. But that's exactly what they're doing out West to try to overcome a lingering drought. This winter, a growing number of regions will pay big money to try to coax snow out of otherwise stingy clouds.
CNN's Rob Marciano joining us live now from the Weather Center to tell us more about the art of cloud seeding.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're right about that, Heidi. It is actually a bit more of an art than it is a science. Although the scientific theory makes sense, we don't know just how much it actually increases the amount of snow that can fall out of these clouds.
First off, we'll go over how it would typically would snow over the Colorado Rockies. A couple of situations can take shape. This usually happens across the front range of the Colorado Rockies, when you can get upsloping winds, some moisture tapped from the Gulf of Mexico. And as that moisture heads into the mountains, it is forced up the mountains. We call that orographic lift. And then that moist air cools. It condenses. It forms a cloud.
And, typically, there's enough lift here and enough moisture to actually get that moisture to fall out of the clouds in the form of some snow. And boom, there you have it. You have some mountain snow. And that's typically where the front range will get its snow and also Denver, Colorado. This doesn't always set up. But it's a good way to get a decent amount of snow.
The other way is to get snow coming in from the other side, say the Pacific systems, which have to go over the Sierra Nevadas. They have to go over the Wasatch of Utah. And by the time they get to the Colorado Rockies, they have a little less moisture. So what the ski resorts are doing and have been doing is, they like to give it a little bit of boost with what we call cloud seeding.
And here's how that works. They've been doing it for about 50 years now. And this is kind of a graphic that highlights a couple things. First of all, this is kind of like a big Bunsen burner. And they'll dump silver iodide into it. And the hot currents will lift that silver iodide into the clouds. And what silver iodide is, it's a condensation nuclei. That what we need in clouds for actual condensation to occur. It has to occur on something.
So it bumps up that. It makes for more crowd droplets. The other way to do that is also to drop it in from airplanes. It's a little bit more costly. So we get the silver iodide in there, more condensation. Eventually, the cloud gets heavy enough -- or those molecules get heavy enough to let it fall as snow and as clouds. So that's how cloud seeding actually works.
And it's important out there, because they have a multi-year drought. And some of the mountains across southern Colorado, namely, the San Juan Mountains, they feed into parts of New Mexico and Arizona. So they're trying to squeeze every drop of moisture out of these clouds as they possibly can.
And what I found interesting, Heidi, is not only the ski resorts, but now hydroelectric operators are getting involved in this, because they want their dams to be full downstream come the spring. And, obviously, city planners are getting involved in this because they want their reservoirs to be full, so that they have moisture throughout the summertime.
But you lived out there. You worked out there, Heidi. And you, I'm sure, reported on this. You probably know more about this topic than I do. They take it seriously, don't they?
COLLINS: Oh, definitely not, especially with all those beautiful graphics. Great job on that.
Yes, cloud seeding, they do a lot of research in Colorado on that. I think, also, they can keep hail from forming, right? So insurance companies and people who obviously own cars pretty happy about that.
MARCIANO: Yes, that's -- in severe weather season, yes, they try to knock down the chances for hail and just make it rain in some of those thunderstorms.
Another interesting topic -- or point -- is that we estimate 10, 15, maybe 20 percent increases of moisture coming out of these clouds. So, Heidi, if you get like a ski resort that gets 300 inches of snow a year, that bumps it up by 30 inches -- 300 inches -- 10 percent would be 30 inches. And, more importantly, by springtime, that would translate to two, almost three inches of rainwater that would be going downstream.
So it's worth a shot. The other thing is that it costs so much to make snow. One night of making snow costs the same as actually seeding these clouds for an entire season. So it's pretty cost- effective.
COLLINS: Right. Right. I wonder if the pilots of those planes could actually be from the snow resorts or ski resorts, right?
MARCIANO: You like those graphics, don't you?
COLLINS: All right, Rob Marciano, thanks so very much.
MARCIANO: OK, we'll see you.
COLLINS: Appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 2, 2003 - 15:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they say it's not nice to fool Mother Nature. But that's exactly what they're doing out West to try to overcome a lingering drought. This winter, a growing number of regions will pay big money to try to coax snow out of otherwise stingy clouds.
CNN's Rob Marciano joining us live now from the Weather Center to tell us more about the art of cloud seeding.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're right about that, Heidi. It is actually a bit more of an art than it is a science. Although the scientific theory makes sense, we don't know just how much it actually increases the amount of snow that can fall out of these clouds.
First off, we'll go over how it would typically would snow over the Colorado Rockies. A couple of situations can take shape. This usually happens across the front range of the Colorado Rockies, when you can get upsloping winds, some moisture tapped from the Gulf of Mexico. And as that moisture heads into the mountains, it is forced up the mountains. We call that orographic lift. And then that moist air cools. It condenses. It forms a cloud.
And, typically, there's enough lift here and enough moisture to actually get that moisture to fall out of the clouds in the form of some snow. And boom, there you have it. You have some mountain snow. And that's typically where the front range will get its snow and also Denver, Colorado. This doesn't always set up. But it's a good way to get a decent amount of snow.
The other way is to get snow coming in from the other side, say the Pacific systems, which have to go over the Sierra Nevadas. They have to go over the Wasatch of Utah. And by the time they get to the Colorado Rockies, they have a little less moisture. So what the ski resorts are doing and have been doing is, they like to give it a little bit of boost with what we call cloud seeding.
And here's how that works. They've been doing it for about 50 years now. And this is kind of a graphic that highlights a couple things. First of all, this is kind of like a big Bunsen burner. And they'll dump silver iodide into it. And the hot currents will lift that silver iodide into the clouds. And what silver iodide is, it's a condensation nuclei. That what we need in clouds for actual condensation to occur. It has to occur on something.
So it bumps up that. It makes for more crowd droplets. The other way to do that is also to drop it in from airplanes. It's a little bit more costly. So we get the silver iodide in there, more condensation. Eventually, the cloud gets heavy enough -- or those molecules get heavy enough to let it fall as snow and as clouds. So that's how cloud seeding actually works.
And it's important out there, because they have a multi-year drought. And some of the mountains across southern Colorado, namely, the San Juan Mountains, they feed into parts of New Mexico and Arizona. So they're trying to squeeze every drop of moisture out of these clouds as they possibly can.
And what I found interesting, Heidi, is not only the ski resorts, but now hydroelectric operators are getting involved in this, because they want their dams to be full downstream come the spring. And, obviously, city planners are getting involved in this because they want their reservoirs to be full, so that they have moisture throughout the summertime.
But you lived out there. You worked out there, Heidi. And you, I'm sure, reported on this. You probably know more about this topic than I do. They take it seriously, don't they?
COLLINS: Oh, definitely not, especially with all those beautiful graphics. Great job on that.
Yes, cloud seeding, they do a lot of research in Colorado on that. I think, also, they can keep hail from forming, right? So insurance companies and people who obviously own cars pretty happy about that.
MARCIANO: Yes, that's -- in severe weather season, yes, they try to knock down the chances for hail and just make it rain in some of those thunderstorms.
Another interesting topic -- or point -- is that we estimate 10, 15, maybe 20 percent increases of moisture coming out of these clouds. So, Heidi, if you get like a ski resort that gets 300 inches of snow a year, that bumps it up by 30 inches -- 300 inches -- 10 percent would be 30 inches. And, more importantly, by springtime, that would translate to two, almost three inches of rainwater that would be going downstream.
So it's worth a shot. The other thing is that it costs so much to make snow. One night of making snow costs the same as actually seeding these clouds for an entire season. So it's pretty cost- effective.
COLLINS: Right. Right. I wonder if the pilots of those planes could actually be from the snow resorts or ski resorts, right?
MARCIANO: You like those graphics, don't you?
COLLINS: All right, Rob Marciano, thanks so very much.
MARCIANO: OK, we'll see you.
COLLINS: Appreciate it. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
