Potential of Convective Cloud Seeding in the Southwest

Abstract

WATER users in the Southwest can be divided generally into those who use stored water (reservoir and/or groundwater) and those who depend upon rain fall for range forage and for livestock watering. These groups may or may not view weather modification simi larly. The principal purposes for increasing precipitation in the Southwest are: (a) to increase the surface and subsurface water stored for municipal, industrial, mining, and irrigated agriculture users, and (b) to increase range forage for beef production. The former users are most interested in moving the most possible water from the watersheds into reservoirs and groundwater storage; the latter users are most interested in retaining as much water as possible on the land to improve range conditions. Much of the land surface of Arizona and New Mexico