“Rainmaker, a US startup, is attempting to use cloud seeding to increase snowfall in Utah, thereby replenishing the Great Salt Lake,” reports The Doomslayer.
The Great Salt Lake is severely depleted, about 500,000 acre feet below its threshold.
Snow Brains says that
Rainmaker is a company that increases snowpack by utilizing cloud seeding and operates over the course of the winter to increase snowfall by about 10-20%. This fall, Rainmaker will commence the largest American cloud seeding program in modern history. Its operations in the Bear River Basin, the largest watershed feeding the Great Salt Lake, will increase water supply and support drought resilience in Utah, Idaho, and other Western states….
In Utah, the state receives 95% of its water supply from snowpack during the winter, and cloud seeding can be a game-changer. Therefore, Rainmaker targets maximizing this snowpack, linking winter recreation to spring and summer water needs, with campaigns like “Save Our Snow” and “Snow to Stream Flow.” By increasing Utah’s snowpack, it not only brings more snow to the slopes at ski resorts in the winter, but it also provides more sustainable drinkable water in the summer for farmers, cities, and communities.
Parker Cardwell of Rainmaker says its “main focus is to increase snowpack, which is the same snow that we’re skiing on in the wintertime, and is the same water that you’re drinking in the springtime.”
Rainmaker uses drones and advanced radar in its system to increase snowfall.
Another tech firm is selling drones to businesses to help them catch thieves.
Walmart recently expanded its use of drones to three more states (to deliver its products to customers, not to catch criminals).
On some American farms, there are drones with artificial intelligence that spray fungicides to kill pests. As Bloomberg News notes, “These aerial acrobats use less than a tenth of the energy of ground tractors — and they don’t squash the crops, rut the earth or even touch the soil.”
