Unsure of the intent of Project Stormfury. Can anyone help?

Question

One book I am reading says that (and I quote) 'The American government was experimenting with cloud seeding experiments to produce rain in arid regions. The attempt to artificially produce rain was called Project Stormfury."

However, everything I have found via Google says that Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaken Hurricanes and Tropical Storms by seeding them with Silver Iodide. Can anyone tell me if my book was mistaken, or if there was a previous component to the project?

Answer 1

Very good question. This project was carried out between 1962 and 1982 or 83. The hypothesis was that if the region just outside the eyewall of the developed hurricane was seeded with silver iodide, that the convection in that region would grow while the convection in the eye wall region itself would decrease thus increasing the size of the eye and the intensity of the storm, somewhat akin to the ice skater throwing his or her arms out when in a spin and thereby slowing down their rate of rotation.

Politics in the US forced the project in its latter years to move to the western Pacific. But the Japanese were very fearful of either an increase in the storms affecting Japan or a decrease and so the project was also killed in that ocean basin.

Dr. Bob Simpson, a previous director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami,  left the Directorship of the National Hurricane Research Project to obtain a doctorate. He then become Director of Project STORMFURY, and Cecil Gentry became the new NHRP Director.

Answer 2

your book is right.. stormfury used to be a project for handling the storm.. Project Stormfury was a research program for hurricane modification that was active between 1962 and 1983..

in 1946 Bernard Vonnegut, discovered that silver iodide could be used to "seed" clouds. If the silver iodide were dropped in clouds of "supercooled" water — water that is colder than 32 degrees but is not frozen — it would turn the water to ice crystals that would fall as snow. In summer, the snow would melt on the way down to become rain.

but as i know the project was a failed..