The Weather Notebook: Russian Cloud Seeding

Russian Cloud Seeding
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Four years ago, the Russians staged a celebration for the 850th Anniversary of Moscow, that nation's capital. A weather story here, you ask? Well, yes!

Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is, afterall, the Weather Notebook.

In the fall of 1997, Mayor Yuri Luscov wanted to be sure that the weather cooperated and didn't rain, as it often does during that season, on the massive birthday party. Andy Bowers is an NPR correspondent and hewas based in Moscow at the time. He tells us what the ambitious politician did next.

"Luscov paid the weather service more than 1/2 a million dollars to keep it from raining on the parade, so to speak. Basically the theory behind this is that they figure out which direction the clouds are coming from, and they take planes, 8 planes out about 100 kilometers outside of Moscow and seed the clouds there so that they drop their rain before getting to the city."

Of course, you're wondering whether Luscov's effort made a difference . Here's what our intrepid reporter, Bowers, told us.

"Well, it was a 3 day celebration. It started on Friday, and Friday and Saturday passed without any rain, there were some clouds but nothing serious. Then Sunday, we got half way through the day with no trouble and then as the closing ceremony was approaching, which was taking place in an open air stadium, we got the first few raindrops and by the time the televised event was in full swing, it was pouring rain. And the problem with that was that there were all sorts of acrobats and dancers doing tricks all over this soaking wet stage and many of them kept slipping and falling. So, no, it didn't quite work."

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory and is supported generously by Subaru of America.