“The greatest snow on Earth” is shrinking annually as temperatures climb.
RAIN Enhancement Technologies is proposing a solution to save Utah’s powder ahead of the upcoming winter sports season.
Founded in 2022, RAIN CEO Randy Seidl has been embarking on global travel bringing his cloud seeding —a weather modification technique that helps water droplets grow heavy enough to fall as rain or snow — technology to the world. His next conquest is Utah.
He has done so through weather technology enhancement array (WETA) stations. Rain currently has a WETA station in the La Sal Mountains near Moab.
WETA stations are solar powered and electrical charges to ionize the air, this is what enhances precipitation in the areas. It does not create "something out of nothing,” as Seidl explained but it can add to what is already in the air.
Common cloud seeding concerns include the use of silver iodide and its effect on the atmosphere. Seidl is proud to note that his WETA stations do not use any chemicals.
While already working in Moab, the company has seen that “results independently validated by Utah State University showed snowpack measuring more than 20% higher than an untreated control site nearby.“
Siedl noted his positive experience working with USU thus far, and his goals of eventually being engaged with USU on the academic and student level.
Seidl has identified where he believes his technology could aid Cache Valley.
“If you look at the problems that you have with Cherry Peak ski area, a low altitude, low amount of snow, and then Little Logan, Richmond City and especially Newton Reservoir are kind of the big pain points,” Siedl said. “They all have their own kind of different flavors of water problems.”
According to the company’s public relations representative Neil Stein, Seidl has identified ski resorts as his target market for RAIN. Seidl mentioned he was in talks with a large ski resort in Utah but kept specifics private.
“Having more snow just makes their season better,” Seidl said. “That means more people come to the ski areas. They spend more there. They spend more in the towns and bars and restaurants and grocery stores and laundromats and hotels.”
The company also recently entered into a pilot program with California Highway Patrol and California Transit to combat high level fog mitigation to prevent traffic accidents.
“High level fog is kind of zillions of molecules so what happens is we can help those molecules come together, get a little bit bigger, kind of drop down, so that way it kind of clears out a line of sight,” Seidl said.
He explained that traffic accident prevention and air pollution are secondary and third uses for RAIN technology. Seidl hopes to see his product utilized by the 2034 Utah Olympic committee in Utah's mission to clean up the air in time for the games.
Water has proven to be costly, especially in areas where it is a scarce resource. Seidl broke down the cost of his WETA station by its impact.
“For Moab, during the winter, we showed them that we provided at least 8,750 acre feet of water, which was 2.85 billion gallons,” Seidl said. That's kind of a ballpark cost, if you did an equivalent, would be about $9 an acre foot just for that winter.”
Seidl also explained RAIN’s mission extended beyond his lifetime as he hopes it leads to aiding future generations.
“Water is just a commodity that you always take for granted.” Seidl said, “You can definitely see a world where kind of down the road, without more responsibility and more enhancement solutions — really could be in a tough situation.”