Weather Modification
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All individuals and organizations intending to conduct weather modification activities are required to obtain a weather modification license and permit from the TDLR. Read More
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News and Updates
Notice of Intent to Review Rules
September 16, 2022
The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (Department) is reviewing the Weather Modification program rules located at Title 16, Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 79 for re-adoption, revision, or repeal. This rule review is required every four years.
The Notice of Intent to Review was published in the Texas Register on September 2, 2022 (47 TexReg 5344), as part of a combined notice with several other rule chapters undergoing simultaneous review. The Department will determine whether the reasons for adopting or readopting these rules continue to exist by answering the following questions for each rule:
- Is it obsolete?
- Does it reflect current legal and policy considerations?
- Is it in alignment with the current procedures of the Department?
The Department encourages anyone interested in the Weather Modification program under Chapter 79 to review the Notice of Intent to Review online and the current chapter rules posted on the Department’s website.
Comments may be submitted electronically on the Department’s website at https://ga.tdlr.texas.gov:1443/form/gcerules (select the appropriate chapter name for your comment).
Comments received prior to October 17, 2022, may be considered by the Department.
Advisory Committee Meetings
July 7, 2022
The Weather Modification Advisory Committee met July 7, 2022 via videoconference. The meeting was archived and is available on TDLR's YouTube channel. The agenda and staff reports are available online.
About Weather Modification
Weather Modification - Weather Modification – Focused efforts to produce additional rainfall using cloud seeding are widespread in much of West and South Texas during the growing season, which extends from early spring until autumn each year. In fact, areas where cloud seeding is concentrated covers about one-sixth of the land area of Texas. The seeding is done primarily for rainfall enhancement using aircraft and sophisticated weather radar data. Decisions to deploy aircraft and disperse seeding materials (both silver iodide and salts) are made by trained meteorologists licensed by TDLR specifically for weather modification. Aircraft are based at airports in various locations within the “target” areas of these projects, i.e. where the impact of seeding (more rainfall from thunderstorms) is intended.
TDLR’s weather modification program issues licenses and permits for these projects, almost all of which have been in operation for 20 years or longer. The licenses attest to the credentials and experience of the meteorologists who direct the seeding operations, while the permits pertain to specific regions where seeding is intended and where aircraft may operate. A licensee may conduct more than one project, each of which requires that a specific permit be issued before seeding can begin. The aim of regulating weather modification in Texas is to ensure that various methods of modifying the weather do not dissipate clouds nor inhibit their ability to produce rainfall to the detriment of people or property in the affected areas.
TDLR’s program also assists individuals, organizations and governmental bodies in the design of cloud-seeding operations, as well as monitoring ongoing seeding activities to ensure compliance with permits and helping to evaluate the impact of the seeding on “target” and neighborhood areas. It also administers federal grants for exploratory, and confirmatory, cloud-seeding studies and shares information on technological advances with other State agencies, organizations, and interested individuals.
Weather Modification Regulation
All individuals and organizations intending to conduct weather modification activities are required to obtain a weather modification license and permit from TDLR. Contact Adam Foster at (512) 202-8167 or adam.foster@tdlr.texas.gov for assistance with the licensing and permitting of weather modification operations.
The Department relies on its staff, as well as the Weather Modification Advisory Committee, for recommendations on applications for weather modification licenses and permits. The Committee, consisting of an engineer, people in business, an attorney at law, and an agricultural producer, meets several times each year, usually in Austin, to review applications for licenses and permits.
For more information about the weather modification program, e-mail TDLR at weather.modification@tdlr.texas.gov.