Cloud Seeding

[grassfarmer]

So I'm still not understanding this - if you say that the thunderstorms affecting Calgary come from either the North west or the southwest of the city and the clouds are being seeded to prevent hail falling in the city shouldn't that mean the precipitation resulting from the seeding drops SW or NW of Calgary?.
Is that what you are saying happens silverback? whereas Cakadu is saying it is dry west of #2 but getting dumped on east of #2 because of storm seeding.
How can it be falling east of hiway 2 unless the storm is coming in from the east or the seeding works by preventing moisture from falling rather than triggering it? From Cakadu's post at the start I assume it is used to trigger the hail before it crosses the city - if you just seeded into the storm with the intention of it not falling until it got east of Calgay wouldn't that increase the risk to Calgary?

[grassfarmer]

would this be an undertaking of Environment Canada ? It would be intersting to learn what the rationale is for it.

[grassfarmer]

On researching this further on the internet there seem to be widely conflicting views on the subject. It's an interesting one though.
"http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18624952.000" is an interesting read about the process in China and South Africa.

[silverback]

The result of seeding thunderclouds as I understand it is to start the release of the moisture sooner and to disrupt the formation of the extremely high "tops" on the thunderclouds that allow for hailstones to travel very high and build bigger and bigger. They are trying to produce smaller softer hailstones that will not damage cars and shingles. We did see some big hail storms last year east of Calgary, so I guess they can't stop them all, but on average over the last few years the storms that you can see brewing in the west country kinda fizzle out for 10 to 20 miles before the heat and moisture builds up again and away they go.

My main point is this - If I know I am at a risk of getting hail, I can buy hail insurance and manage my risk.

I cannot buy rain.

Without the normal rainfall that we should get, I am at a disadvantage to all the areas that are not experiencing this effect.

Perhaps a few less farmers is a good trade off for some?