Assessment of the Cloud Seeding Efficiency over Tom Green County Texas, USA

The efficiency of cloud seeding in enhancing precipitation is a subject of active debate within the scientific community. This work examines the impacts of cloud seeding in changing cloud properties and dynamics over Tom Green County in West Texas, USA, from 2015 to 2020. Several cloud categories including small, large, and type B are considered. The effect of cloud-seeding missions in changing clouds’ lifetime, area, volume, and precipitation mass is investigated. The results show that the average increase in the lifetime of small, large, and type B is 53.6, 27, and 3.5%, respectively, while the average area increased by 47.1, 27.5, and 5.0% respectively, and their average volume increased by 63.6, 33, and 5.6% respectively. A significant increase in the precipitation mass of the small, large, and type B clouds is observed after the seeding missions. From 2015 to 2020, the precipitation rates in seeded clouds are higher than the unseeded clouds. Comparing precipitation rates during the 2015–2020 cloud-seeding campaigns to the period from 2010 to 2014 before the campaigns shows no trend of increasing precipitation except during 2015 and 2016.