10 PM NETWORK NOVEMBER 2016 WWW.PMI.ORG theEdge

Make It Rain

As droughts become the new normal in some parts of the world, more governments and private organizations are sponsoring projects to modify weather patterns. From India to the United States, Morocco to Argentina, cloud-seeding projects are sending pilots directly into cloud banks. There, the planes shoot flares of superfine salt particles to create raindrops or silver iodide to create snow.

Fifty-two countries now have cloud-seeding programs, according to the World Meteorological Organization, 10 more than four years ago.

Bloomberg estimates that the Chinese government spends hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars each year funding cloud-seeding projects in 22 of its 23 provinces. There were 55 cloud-seeding projects in just the United States in 2014, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—about one-fifth in parched Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works recently sponsored its first cloud-seeding project since 2002, a US$550,000 effort to boost the region’s rainfall levels.

In the Indian state of Maharashtra, which is reeling from a deep, prolonged drought, a US$4.5 million, three-month cloud-seeding program was completed in 2015—the largest initiative of its kind ever attempted in the country. “Our situation is severe,” the state’s minister of revenue, Eknath Khadse, told Bloomberg. “There is no other technology available in the world to bring more rains.

We must be willing to try it.” During the project’s execution phase, when a cloud-seeding flight would indeed spark rain, residents danced in the streets.

Liquid Benefits

“Cloud seeding is no kind of black magic. It’s applied microphysics,” says Bruce Boe, vice president of meteorology, Weather Modification Inc., Fargo, North Dakota, USA. The company is the world’s largest private aerial cloud-seeding organization, with a portfolio spanning six continents.

Governments typically sponsor Weather Modifi-

In the Right Place

All project sites aren’t created equal—some countries are more cost-competitive than others in certain ways. To make the most of their overseas investment, organizations must size up the competition.

Among 10 countries* surveyed, the three most competitive,
by major cost factor:
Source: Competitive Alternatives, KPMG, 2016. *Results based on a comparison
of costs in more than 100 cities across 10 countries (Australia, Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, U. K. and U. S.).