Scientists Make Dozens of Storms in the Abu Dhabi Desert?
Claims of Manmade Rain Clouds Spark Skepticism
In arid lands, the ability to create freshwater out of thin air would be priceless.
Now a Swiss company, Meteo Systems, is poised to earn a pretty penny in Abu Dhabi with a controversial weather modification system said to be responsible for dozens of rain showers in the desert last summer.
The claim is difficult to verify but certainly has raised a storm of skepticism among many leading weather modification experts.
“As far as I’m concerned I don’t believe these claims,” said Roelof Bruintjes, who heads the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s international weather modification programs. “There’s no scientific basis for this; the physics doesn’t support it.”
(Related: “Planes Create Weird Clouds—And Snow, Rain Fall Out.”)
While typical weather modification efforts—which began
