Everyone wants to know these answers about cloud seeding, yet it's hard to answer some of the simplest questions on the issue. Unlike a recent letter to the editor claimed, I have not commented on the air or taken a stance on cloud seeding. Like most people, I'm probably for cloud seeding if it works. Proving that dropping chemicals into a cloud actually increases its rainfall is nearly impossible to measure because we don't know what the cloud would have done without our intervention.
Common sense suggests that if a seeded cloud produces more rain, then the seeding is a success.
But rain areas naturally intensify and diminish throughout their life cycle anyway. Our current technology can't predict if the changes occurred due to man or environment. But even similar rain clouds can't be compared because each forms in a slightly different environment. The two storms could live independently or interact with each other. Either way, the storms have different life cycles.