----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Barrow
> Hugh, Lloyd and Gil - let's hear about your rainmaking magic.
>
> First questions, what size geographical area do your methods affect, how
do
> you ensure that it will rain where and when you want it to do so, what are
> the long term impacts on the weather, and how can you be sure that there
is
> no negative environmental impact?
Whoa there Stephen
Lets keep our sense of balance here !
First . Anything I have done in this department is 5 year old (at
least) Hugh Lovel technology so I would really like Hugh to give us the
latest on how and what to do and his explanation of what is happening in the
atmosphere.
I will give some of my reasoning as to why I strongly believe this is
a do able thing and also some personal thoughts on the ethics of it (thats
a poor phrase for what I meant but bear with me)
Why I think it works? This will be longish but I'll get there
Some background -- We have lived on this farm for 25 years and I think I am
more observant than the average person (I still like to go in the bush and
track animals to see if I can do it, as a habit I read the tyre tracks in
the yard every time I come home to see who visited) Dumb stuff to some but I
like to try and figure out whats going on. Our farm is in central / southern
NSW about 350 miles inland (west) from sydney, the rainfall is winter
dominant 19 inches but we do get a reasonable amount of storm rain scattered
over summer - tho not enough to grow viable summer crops and the late summer
early autumn is pretty unreliable. we are always looking for good rains to
start our cropping season. This has been a mixed farming area - legume
pasture rotated with cropping cereal grains - and the practice has been to
burn the cereal stubbles for recropping - added to that there is a large
flood irrigated area to the west of us where the rotation goes rice -
matches -wheat - matches - rice - matches - you get the idea? these boys
make a lot of smoke!!
Now for many years I have watched the following scenario through February -
March and into April.
1. Its been dry and now theres a nice promising weather front approaching
from the west , the forecasters think its ok , the farmers hope it will rain
and as the change moves across the inland this is looking real good for rain
2 . every second lunatic about the place with a box of matches goes out and
burns off stubble - grass patches - along chanel banks - the works! ( the
logic here is these guys are convinced its gonna rain so they better do
their burn off so they can get a "good" clean burn = black paddock which
then means an easy job of cultivation and a hassle free seeding
operation) -all this smoke discharges in front of our approaching weather
front and guess what? the clouds disperse - the promising change and hopes
of rain - dissipates - and no rain
3 . most years this pattern of events will be repeated several times until
all of the burning is completed. (there are exceptions of course and
sometimes it does rain)
4. we wait for three or four weeks or more for the atmosphere to clear and
finally in late April or early May (if we are lucky) we get our seasonal
"break" rains and everything kicks into gear
1 to 4 above would have been the pattern here for a hundred years and so is
regarded as normal and the rainfall records beyond that time are not good
enough to help either way
I may have exaggerated but this is my observation over many years and I
am CONVINCED, and have been for years that the above is having a definite
affect on our rainfall in that period ( say late February to May)
We get these moisture laden fronts coming in, good cloud formations , with
an associated low pressure band, all thats needed is a trigger and we go and
do the opposite thing!!!!
So when Hugh Lovel pops up with some so called crazy ideas about how we can
clear this gunk out of the atmosphere and reverse the situation I am all
ears!! This makes a lot of sense to me and the question is not can we do it
but how to! If our stupidity, greed and ignorance can force things one way,
why not use our intellect and good intent to move in the other direction??
> First questions, what size geographical area do your methods affect,
A. when it works here I am guessing about 5 to10 miles wide by 15 to 25
long in the direction of the movement of weather pattern
> how do you ensure that it will rain where and when you want it to do so,
A. This is a "hard chemistry " type of statement that I am not comfortable
with. We really are only trying to clear the way to allow Mother Nature to
do what she was trying to do in the first place.
That weather front was MEANT to bring rain to the area that it moved over
and we have obstructed it by pumping crap out into the atmosphere. Hugh
Lovels conditions are different but I think the same rules operate
everywhere, he has a high rainfall / high humidity situation so if he
treated into an active frontal system would probably get a flood - we have
clear skies and 40% humidity so I think we need that cloud band to get
results (can't get blood out of a stone - can we?)
> what are the long term impacts on the weather,
A. This surely must be beneficial long term?? People worry about "stealing
" the rain from others and creating droughts down stream - realistically if
we extracted all of the rain from all the clouds that pass by we would
drown!.
>and how can you be sure that there is no negative environmental impact?
A. Good question - All of my broadcasts go out with the intent " for the
good of all and to the detriment of no one" written in the well and I think
if we stay within the boundaries of normal there will be no detrimental
effect - our region averages 19 to 20 inches of rain per year which - if it
falls at advantageous times for crop growth - is entirely adequate and
satisfactory - we dont need more and in fact much more than that is a
problem and long term detrimental to our soils. If we confine our activities
to when we need to improve moisture conditions I can't see a problem.
Remember that other things are affected too and the broadcasting of BD
remedies will improve overall the soil / plant moisture situation so that we
dont need as much rain to get the same result. We can do quite nicely in a
dryish year if the timing of rainfall is OK. I guess the end message here
is don't be greedy cause if you do it will come back and bite you .
Cheers to all
Lloyd Charles
