ru
Wikipedia Commons License:   This image explaining cloud seeding shows the chemical either silver iodide or dry ice being dumped onto the cloud, which then becomes a rain shower. The process shown in the upper-right is what is happening in the cloud and the process of condensation to the introduced chemicals. Date25 March 2011 SourceOwn work AuthorNaomi E Tesla
25 Jul 2023

Mexico steps up efforts to create rain in cloud seeding project as heatwaves and deadly droughts intensify in 2023

ru

Mexico’s government has launched the latest phase of a cloud seeding project it hopes will increase rainfall, reports The Guardian. 

The project began in July and involves planes flying into clouds to release silver iodide particles which  in theory will attract additional water droplets and increase rain or snowfall.

The project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with technicians from the National Commission for Arid Zones (Conaza) and support from the Ministry of National Defense, is expected to impact agricultural and livestock activities in 62 municipalities of the country.

With the aim of combating the effects of drought in the rural sector and contributing to the recharge of aquifers, for the benefit of agricultural activity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will launch the project to stimulate rainfall in 10 areas in the north and northeast of the country the following week.

The federal agency highlighted that the scheme, headed by technicians from the National Commission for Arid Zones (Conaza) with support from the Ministry of National Defense, will impact 62 municipalities for the Spring-Summer 2023 and Autumn-Winter 2023-2024 cycles.

The substance sprayed into the clouds is made up of silver iodide molecules supercooled in acetone, which generates condensation nuclei that generate rainfall and, according to the website of the Mexican government,  is 100% Mexican technology which is - allegedly  - also friendly to the environment.

 

Cloud seeding in Mexico. Photo from Gobierno de Mexico
Photo from the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development | June 26, 2023 | Release

 

However,  Mexico’s leading cloud physicists have cast significant doubt on the viability of the technology and experts across fields warn against simple solutions to the effects of climate change.

“There is no evidence that cloud seeding techniques allow for the increase of precipitation over important economic zones, nor is there certainty about effects outside the targeted zone,” write Fernando García García and Guillermo Montero Martínez, cloud physicists at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (Unam).

In 2020, CTIF.org wrote about similar projects in cloud seeding designed to fight forest fires in Siberia, Russia.

 

167 people died in the heat this summer

Recent drought in Mexico have put climate change into focus. It was the hottest month on record in Mexico, with temperatures 2.3C higher than historical averages.

The heat has killed a lot livestock,  and on the US-Mexico border in Mexicali, temperatures hit 50.2C (122F), a national record. At least 167 Mexicans have died as a direct result of the heat.

It was the driest June since 1941, with rainfall 60% below averages.

Image removed.
Wikipedia Commons License: 



This image explaining cloud seeding shows the chemical either silver iodide or dry ice being dumped onto the cloud, which then becomes a rain shower. The process shown in the upper-right is what is happening in the cloud and the process of condensation to the introduced chemicals.

Date25 March 2011

SourceOwn work

Author
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Naomi_E_Tesla&amp;action=e… E Tesla</a>" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="4489e7fe-aa0e-4ee6-8f80-4b6ea1dd8d47" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Cloudseedingimagecorrected.jpeg">