When the U.S. Government Tried to Make It Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky

When the U.S. Government Tried to Make It Rain by Exploding Dynamite in the Sky
Inspired by weather patterns during the Civil War, the rainmakers of the 1890s headed to west Texas to test their theory

By Katie Nodjimbadem
SMITHSONIAN.COM
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 12:58PM

The skies around Midland, Texas, lit up and thundered with the brilliance and cacophony of military-grade explosives. But it was far from a wartime scene, as on August 17, 1891, a group of scientists were setting off explosives in the first government-funded rain-making experiments.

Robert G. Dyrenforth had traveled by train from Washington, D.C. to a Texas cattle ranch in Texas with a group of other “rainmaking” enthusiasts. They arrived armed with dynamite, kites and balloons, the key ingredients for their rain-making recipe. Following the tenets of the concussion theory of weather modification, which suggested that clouds could be compelled to produce rain as a result of agitation from loud noise, the rainmakers prepared their explosives for detonation.

Among the group was Edward Powers, a former Civil War general who made the observation in his 1871 book, War and the Weather, that rain frequently occurred in the days following a Civil War battle. He theorized that the loud noise accompanying the events of battle had agitated clouds causing them to release the rain holed up inside of them, and his book documented several battles throughout history and the subsequent rain events.

“If lightning and thunder and rain have been brought on by the agency of man, when bloodshed and slaughter were only intended, this surely can be done without these latter concomitants,” he wrote, urging the U.S. Congress to fund research on the topic.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-us-government-tried-make-rain-exploding-dynamite-sky-180970193/#UoBkQ8rRz4poBslY.99