Technical Reports Document Library

2005 marked the fourth year of operations for the Edwards Aquifer Authority (EAA) by Southwest Texas Rain Enhancement Association (SWTREA). The 2005 seeding season was an interesting one in terms of staff. The project under went [sic] some changes in terms of where planes and pilots were. The pilot and plane that was [sic] stationed in Uvalde County were moved to San Antonio at Stinson airport. A pilot from the South Texas Weather Modification Association (STWMA) project was used mainly for seeding in Uvalde County. The other two planes were stationed in Carrizo Springs. This pilot occasionally was used for seeding in Uvalde County. During the 2005 season, the cooperation between SWTREA and STWMA continued as SWTREA used pilots stationed in San Antonio for seeding operations. The working relationship between the two projects has allowed both projects to benefit.

Seeding in the Authority target area of Uvalde County saw a total of 21 flights for the 2005 operational year compared to 15 flights in 2004. Also, with the continued cooperation between the two seeding projects, SWTREA flew a total of 6 missions in Medina County.

Five of these missions were flown in addition to another mission that was already taking place. One mission was launched specifically for Medina County due to technical difficulties with the SWTMA project on this particular day. As seen above, there were more missions in 2005 than 2004. 2005 was very dry for most parts of south Texas. As written in last year’s report, seeding operations in 2004 were suspended for most of June due to excessive flooding across the area. However, when making a comparison with 2003, things seem more normal with a total of 20 flights in 2003.

At the conclusion of the 2005 operational season for the Authority EAA target area, October 31st, a radar evaluation was completed for the program. The findings were presented and discussed towards the end of this report.

The flight logs for the 2005 seeding season are below. This is just for Uvalde County. A separate table will be included for the seeding done in Medina County.