Las Vegas (KSNV) — The steady winter storms this season are especially good news at Red Rock Canyon, where a project is turning the rain into more rain.
Scientists say they’ve successfully increased rain in Red Rock Canyon this season by cloud seeding.
A machine sends particles into very cold clouds, and water freezes on the particles, becoming a snowflake which turns into rain as it falls in Red Rock.
The Desert Research Institute tells News 3 they’ve produced enough additional groundwater to support what they estimate is 1,750 homes for a year.
Doing the math with numbers they provided, the storm moving in now could mean about a thousand homes more.
“I think over the next 48 hours or so, we should see multiple hours of cloud seeding over the area,” said Frank McDonough, Director of the Desert Research Institute cloud seeding program. “And I think that, hopefully, we’ll be able to enhance the precipitation amounts, and I think, by the end, we’ll be well above the median seasonal precipitation. So hopefully, there’ll be some water running in Red Rock Canyon by the end of the winter here.”
There is a total of four generators up in the Spring Mountains; this is the first time they’ve targeted one at the drought-stricken Red Rock Canyon.
