Artificial rain: Contradictory data; experiment suspended

Rainfall data contradict early reports that the Government’s artificial rainmaking experiment-- which has since been suspended--was successful on the day it was carried out over the Maussakelle Reservoir in the Central Province.

A Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) official was quoted as saying that it rained for around 45 minutes on March 22 after a Sri Lanka Air Force plane flew 8,000 feet above the reservoir and sprayed cloud- seeding chemicals into the sky. The time of the downpour over the catchment area was given as being from 1pm to 1.45pm.

It is possible to produce rain by tipping a latent cloud through a triggering mechanism such as chemical seeding, said Lareef Zubair, a climate scientist and environmental engineer. But rainfall observed from satellites and observed at Norwood (near Maussakelle) by the Department of Irrigation clearly indicates that it rained over Maussakele on March 23, the following day, and not at the time cloud seeding took place on March 22.

It was also initially reported that Power and Energy Minister Ravi Karunanayake, based on the success of the pilot project, advised the authorities to create more artificial rain in the next few days.

The technology is provided by the Government of Thailand and a team from that country supervised the initiative.

But this week, the CEB said the cloud seeding project was suspended due to lack of cloud cover and moisture. An official said it had failed to produce the desired results during its initial test run in Maussakele on March 22.

Accordingly, he added, the Power and Energy Ministry had decided to suspend the project after taking into consideration the losses that would be incurred as a result of continuing it.