Weather Modification from Cooling Towers: A Test Based on the Distributional Properties of Rainfall

Abstract

A statistical technique for the treatment of data from weather modification experiments is presented. This work, a part of the Meteorological Effects of Thermal Energy Releases (METER) Program, is aimed at determining the potential precipitation modification effects of the Bowen Electric Generating Plant near Cartersville, Georgia. For that purpose a network of 49 recording raingages and four recording windsets situated on a square (42 km side) grid was installed in early 1978. The statistical technique utilizes a design which resembles the crossover statistical design used in cloud seeding studies and employs the distributional properties of the sample skewness and kurtosis. Based on the storm data from the above network for the period February 1978-August 1978 the technique demonstrates an anomaly in the target area rainfall with a 90% confidence level. This anomaly is interpreted as a plant-induced modification of the spatial variability of rainfall volume.