Could Unclouded Stop Rain at PGA Tour Events?
Think of the number of times The Memorial Tournament, for example, has had rain delays. Or the AT&T Byron Nelson. People in Dallas have told me that they fertilize their lawns the week before that tournament because it’s practically guaranteed to rain during the tournament week.
But what if the rain could be stopped? What if a tournament could guarantee that it would be rain free for a day or two days or longer?
The stuff of science fiction? Not any more. Enter Unclouded, a company that can guarantee a rain-free day or days for a golf tournament or other outdoor events, like the Super Bowl or the World Series. Guess what? It can happen.
It all has to do with cloud seeding, which until recently, was not something that was practical.
Cloud seeding is basically tossing stuff, most commonly silver iodide or dry ice, into clouds to cause rain to happen.
It’s been used by governments like Russia and China for many years.
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In 2008, the Chinese government seeded clouds to assure a dry day/evening for the Olympic opening ceremonies.
In 2016, the Russians spent over $1 million to keep it from raining on International Worker’s Day ( May Day). They also seeded clouds as far back as 1986, after Chernobyl, to knock radioactive material out of the air with rain before it reached Moscow.
The U.S. tried cloud seeding during the Vietnam War to make the rainy season longer and to flood the Ho Chi Minh Trail. But in that location, there’s so much rain, at least during the rainy season, the U.S. government said it was hard to tell it if worked.
According to an article in the Business Insider, 52 countries, including the US, currently use cloud seeding, but mostly it’s to create rain. In our western states, cloud seeding has been used to produce snow which will then, hopefully, result in water when it melts.
To understand cloud seeding, it’s important to know how rain is created. Before rain happens, water vapor in the atmosphere cools, and, if it attaches itself to small particles, like dust or pollen, it can form clouds. When the particles in the clouds get heavy enough, we get rain.
The cloud seeding causes the rain to happen and perhaps gets it to a specific location.
Scientists can’t seem to prove that cloud seeding works. You know how it is with scientists. This cloud isn’t like that cloud, so how can we measure. They can’t get provable cause and effect with weather conditions because weather is always changing. There are too many variables for them to say with certainty that it works or doesn’t.
Regular people aren’t waiting for the white coated experts to figure it out.
According to an article in Scientific American, eight western states are pooling resources to the tune of about $1.5 million each year – which in these times isn’t that much — to seed clouds in the upper Colorado River Basin. The states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming split the cost along with some help from Nevada, California, New Mexico and Arizona, all of which rely on water from the Colorado River. Those states are permanently parched, and finding water is important for them.
But what about stopping rain? Specifically stopping the rain for a golf tournament or an Olympic opening ceremony. It’s apparently simple. Clouds headed your way are seeded so that it rains before it gets to the event, not during it.
So, using The Memorial Tournament and the AT&T Byron Nelson, cloud seeding would be done to clouds approaching those tournaments as weather approached. It would cause any precipitation to fall before reaching the golf courses.
Charles Papazian, is the CEO and founder of Unclouded, a company that stops the rain for events or causes it to rain where it’s needed. They offer a money back guarantee for their rain-stopping services. Recently, they became a preferred vendor for the Golf Tournaments Association of America.
The cost? $25,000-30,000 per seeding. Less per day for multiple days. For individuals, it’s more than anyone would spend, unless they just won Powerball. But for a corporation that brings in its best customers to a golf tournament and wants them to have a rain-free experience, it’s not a great deal of money.
Now, in addition to creating decent weather for golf, we finally have an answer to the question posed years ago by Creedance Clearwater Revival: Who’ll Stop The Rain? Unclouded will.