More artificial rainmaking operations will continue in the North

[webfact]

More artificial rainmaking operations will continue in the North

NAKHON SAWAN, 9 November 2015 (NNT) – The Northern Royal Rainmaking Center continues to operate in order to replenish water reserves in the North of Thailand.

Nuengruthai Tantiplubthong, the Northern Royal Rainmaking Center director, said the center has launched more than 1,800 rainmaking operations from February 1 to October 31 this year.

They were 93% successful with 209 rainy days recorded in 15 provinces. The Northern Royal Rainmaking Center is currently in the process of preparing more operations.

Information on farmlands, weather conditions and equipment necessary for the operations is being obtained for the next round of rainmaking. Four planes will be used in making the artificial rain, which will be launched within Nakhon Sawan province.


-- NNT 2015-11-09

[bheard]

Artificial rain? What's it made of, artificial water?

Oh, they mean real rain with real water made by introducing poluting chemicals into the atmosphere, not to mention unburnt fuel and CO2 from plane engines, multiplied by 1800 flights.

The entire notion of course has been discredited in many countries a long time ago because it doesn't work. That 93% is tosh of course, but they need to continue with the pretense because of . . . .

[Reigntax]

The obvious question to ask is if these missions are so sucessfull why is the country suffering water shortages. Or do the only take off during rain to claim a high success rate.

[waldroj]

In response to Reigntax, they still need favourable conditions. And that is the problem, during drought conditions, there is not the necessary circulation needed to transport moisture and develop suitable clouds for seeding.

That said, it’s still more high-tech than what used to be done in Thailand!

As noted in the Patent (US 20050056705 A1, EP1491088) for Weather modification by royal rainmaking technology held by His Majesty the King, (see http://www.google.com/patents/US20050056705).

In the old days, people in this North-East region cleverly launched a firework to function as a traditional cloud seeding device to cause chemical burning underneath the cloud resulting in rainfall.

They had to carefully observe behaviour of the frogs in the locality as it is well-known that frogs are animal able to indicate the possibility of rainfall.

When there was severe draught (sic), people in the village would also perform a cat procession to beg for rain. Statistically, the people would unpredictably get the rain they need due to the inefficiency of the procedure.

[chainarong]

The obvious question to ask is if these missions are so sucessfull why is the country suffering water shortages. Or do the only take off during rain to claim a high success rate.

To answer your Question I would commit LM, however it all emminates from that quarter , it is indeed a wonderful project, get the drift.

[Srikcir]

"93% successful with 209 rainy days recorded in 15 provinces"

Recorded rainy days is an unscientific measure of success and statiscally meaningless. But maybe from the Junta's perspective, its reference may be more for public consumption than scientific accuracy.

There actually has been a formal scientific study, Testing Efficacy of Rainmaking Activities in the Northeast of Thailand by Siriluk Chumchean and Walairat Bunthai with the Department of Civil Engineering, Mahanakorn University of Technology, circa 2010. RainmakingStudy.pdf

Analysis Process:

To test the efficacy of rainmaking activities in the North of Thailand, the Study compared the average rainfall intensity and accumulated rainfall amount of rain-cells that occur inside and outside a rainmaking’s benefit area. This required an investigation of the differences of rainfall characteristics between rain-cells that fell over the rainmaking’s benefit area and the randomized areas of each operational rainmaking day, accumulated rainfall, average rainfall intensity and maximum of the average rain rate of these areas were compared.

The principal tool used in the Study to measure efficacy of rainmaking activities is the Pimai S-band radar which is owned and operated by the Bureau of Royal of Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation. It is located in Nakorn-ratchasima Province in the Northeast of Thailand.

Study Results:

Findings saw that the accumulated rainfall of the specified rainmaking’s benefit area was higher than the mean of 100 randomized areas at 9% significance level. The maximum of the average rain rate of the specified rainmaking’s benefit area was higher than the mean of 100 randomized areas at 2% significance level. The average rainfall intensity of the specified rainmaking’s benefit area was higher than the mean of 100 randomized areas but it was not significant at 0.1 level.

It was evident that the accumulated rainfall, the average rainfall intensity and the maximum of the average rain rate of the specified rainmaking’s benefit area were higher than the mean of 100 randomized areas at 5%, 3% and 1% significance levels.

My Conclusion:

Thai rainmaking can be marginally beneficial. However, the real question for the government should be whether such success is worth the cost and potential environmental damage. Rainmaking is a short-term solution that may have more political benefit than agricultural benefit. and what Thailand needs are long-term sustaining solutions. Taxpayer funds might better be spent on water management coordination and infrastructures.

Edited November 10, 2015 by Srikcir

[Nobb]

I do not believe this artificial rain making report. To keep there jobs the have to bull sh-t a lot. Rain here today but came from China.

[Langsuan Man]

In Thai, but you will get the idea:

[NongKhaiKid]

Artificial rain? What's it made of, artificial water?

Oh, they mean real rain with real water made by introducing poluting chemicals into the atmosphere, not to mention unburnt fuel and CO2 from plane engines, multiplied by 1800 flights.

The entire notion of course has been discredited in many countries a long time ago because it doesn't work. That 93% is tosh of course, but they need to continue with the pretense because of . . . .

My ex-gf used to quietly giggle at rain making but pointed out there was a prefix beginning with R so ... !

[metisdead]

Conspiracy theory posts have been removed.

[canopy]

Artificial rainmaking has been in the news over and over this year. And every time they tell us how successful it is and how they need to do more of it. Yet 2015 has been the driest year in recorded history in Thailand and dams never filled up. I wonder if it will ever cross their mind that their artificial rainmaking could be contributing to drought. Meddling with mother nature is almost never good.