The Kenya hail suppression program
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54782/jwm.v7i1.714Keywords:
Weather Modification OperationsAbstract
Beginning in October 1967, an operational hail suppression program was initiated in an area located some 130 miles northwest of Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa. The project was supported by private companies which have approximately 45,000 acres of select tea in production. Within the operational area, average precipitation is about 71 inches and hail on the ground is experienced on more than 200 days per year. During the period October 1967 through January 1975, silver iodide was applied by aircraft at cloud base in the inflow area identified to be relevant to that volume of cloud which gives birth to, and allows growth of, hailstones. Program design included a rate of silver iodide application sufficient to produce ice nuclei concentrations of 100 - 1,000 per liter effective at -15C within this important hail producing volume of cloud. A total of 1582 operational days and 2,910 seeding flight hours have been logged. More than 5,700 individual cumulus cells have been seeded. In comparisons of hail damage from seeded and non- seeded cumulus developments, the average damage to tea has apparently been reduced by approximately 40%.Downloads
Issue
Section
Technical Notes and Correspondence
License
Authors that submit papers for publication agree to the Journal’s copyright and publication terms. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the manuscript’s authorship and initial publication in Journal of Weather Modification. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in the Journal of Weather Modification. Authors are permitted to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process to encourage productive exchanges and greater citation of the published article.
Articles are published online using restricted access for the first year. After the first year, articles are made freely available online. Immediate open access for an article may be obtained by the author paying an open access fee which is in addition to the normal page changes. Authors are expected to honor a page charge in order to support publication and distribution of the journal. After the author approves the gallery formatted version for publication, the Weather Modification Association’s Secretary will invoice the corresponding author for the page charges and payment is due within 30 days.
How to Cite
The Kenya hail suppression program. (1975). The Journal of Weather Modification, 7(1), 192-199. https://doi.org/10.54782/jwm.v7i1.714