Weather Modification

The control of hurricanes would be another area with very significant economic and human benefit. Some researchers have suggested that cloud seeding techniques might be a way of dissipating the energy stored in a hurricane. Proposals have been made for the seeding of both the hurricane center (its "eye") and the high velocity winds that surround it.

Project Stormfury is an on-again, off-again project of the federal government to test theories of weather modification. The project seeded Hurricane Ester in 1961, Hurricane Beulah in 1963, and Hurricane Debbie in 1969, among others. At its most effective, the seeding process appears to have reduced hurricane winds by as much as 30%. Hurricane modification research continues in the early 1990s, but at a relatively modest level.