On the Status of Hall Suppression

Abstract

A technology assessment of the future potential of hall suppression and all its possible ramifications in the United States in future years has included an attempt to define the current status of hail suppression. Hall suppression is at a stage in which the socioeconomic impacts of its use and the means to optimize its future utilization can be adequately treated. The estimation of a wide range of future suppression capabilities was based on the current status, which was defined after inspecting three sources of information: 1) results from preliminary evaluations of six recent projects, 2) findings on four published assessments of weather modification, and 3) results from two opinion surveys. This investigation indicates. 1) scientific beliefs about existing capabilities are widely different, with the majority of experts believing there is no capability; 2) the published reviews are optimistic but largely nondefinitive; and 3) the results of five of six recent suppression projects show suppression levels of 20?50%, but the results are largely not significant at the 5% level. This difference between average beliefs of experts and the results of recent projects suggests the need for an extensive investigation of the data and results of these recent projects.