Based on a 20-year operating period, the capital and operating costs of a cloud seeding program in Alberta would be recovered if annual crop losses were reduced by about five percent. Given experimental evidence to date, this is a realistic goal. Rain and hail experiments could be easily combined, as aircraft radar, weather office assistance and other observational support are the same for both. Recommendations Of the three forms of weather modification considered, that is hail suppression, rain augmentation and snow increase, the hail problem is the most complex and difficult to solve, but substantial progress has been made and hail suppression looks feasible at least for some types of storms. It is also recommended that continued analysis of the data obtained from the 1980 to 1985 program be supported to provide more definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of weather modification and to help focus future research efforts.
Further experimentation is required and recommended to optimize the seeding technology.
In particular, seeding delivery techniques should be examined to improve coverage of storms. Participants from the United States and Europe would gather in Alberta in 1988, bringing their equipment, to carry out an intensive hailstorm study to address some of the questions that still remain. Due to the success of the rain augmentation project, it is recommended that the rain research program be expanded. Operational cloud seeding should be carried out by the private sector. However, every effort should be made to evaluate its effectiveness and a strong link should be maintained between the research and operational compounds of future weather modification programs.