The Weathermakers (1967) Read Free Page A

I suppose they are.”
    “My father wants to know what you can do about them. We’ve been forced to suspend mining operations for several days at a time. If something isn’t done soon to stop the storms, we’re going to lose a considerable amount of money. To say nothing of the lives of the men who are in danger.”
    “I understand,” Dr. Rossman said. “We’ve been trying to furnish the entire Pacific area with the most accurate long-range forecasts possible. Fully a third of my entire staff is working on the problem right now. Unfortunately, pinpointing storm development in the open ocean is a very, very difficult task.”
    “I guess it is.”
    “You see, Mr. Thorn, our long-range forecasts are made on a statistical basis. We can predict, with very good accuracy, how much rain will fall over a certain area during a given period of time—say, a month. But we can’t foretell exactly when a storm will form until practically the last minute. And it’s even more difficult to forecast a storm’s exact path, except in a very general manner.”
    “Yes, but when a storm’s going to affect a vital area such as our dredges,” I asked, “can’t you turn it aside or perhaps destroy it altogether?”
    He nearly laughed, but checked himself just in time. “Mr. Thorn, whatever gave you the idea we could do that?”
    “Well . . . aren’t you the people who do the weather-control work? I’ve seen stories about cloud seeding and hurricane patrols . . .”
    “You’re making a very common mistake,” he said, smiling patiently. “Yes, my group here has the responsibility for weather modification experiments. The Weather Bureau has been doing small-scale seeding trials and other experiments for years. But they’ve never amounted to anything. Nothing definite has been proven. No one can alter the course of a storm. No one can dissipate a storm.”
    I could feel myself sink in the chair. “But those people who fly into hurricanes..
    “Oh, that. Yes, for years they’ve tried to modify hurricanes. But there’s never been a firm connection established between what they do and the effect—if any—on the hurricane. Never has a hurricane been stopped, or even slowed down for long, as a result of seeding its clouds.”
    Leaning back in his swivel chair, he almost seemed to be enjoying himself. “There’s the Severe Weather group in Kansas City who’ve claimed they’ve prevented tornadoes—sometimes—by cloud seeding. But I’m not convinced, and neither is anyone else of any technical stature in the Weather Bureau. The results are far from conclusive.”
    I must have looked rather dumbfounded.
    “Look at it this way,” Dr. Rossman said, absently picking up a pencil from his desk. “A hurricane will expend within a few minutes as much energy as the Hiroshima A-bomb. In a single day, it will release the equivalent of a hundred ten-megaton hydrogen bombs. No one and nothing can destroy that!”
    “But . . . smaller storms: can’t you do something about them? Or at least try?”
    He shook his head. “It would be enormously expensive, and completely futile, as far as I can see. In fact, hurricanes are probably more susceptible to man-made modifications than any other type of storm—at least, they seem more delicately balanced, closer to instabilities.”
    “That sounds strange.”
    “Yes,” he agreed. “I suppose it does, to a layman. But it’s true. As far as talk about controlling the weather, though, I’m afraid that’s all it is—just talk. And I can assure you, no one from the Long-Range Forecasts Section will ever be involved in such foolishness as long as I’m in charge.”
    “Foolishness?”
    “Of course it’s foolishness,” he snapped, waving the pencil at me. “Weather control! All the experiments we’ve done have been meaningless. Even supposing we could alter large-scale features of the weather . . . divert one of the storms that’s been bothering you, or destroy it altogether. How do we