Rainmaker Seeds Catskill Showers

Wallace E. Howell '36, Harvard meteorologist, made a three-and-one-half hour cloud-seeding flight Saturday over New York City's Catskill watershed, and said he saw showers which "appeared to be the result of the seeding."

The $100-a-day rainmaker dropped about 50 pounds of dry ice, but said he doubted that a great deal of rain was produced. It was his second cloud-seeding flight and his fourth flight over the watershed since the city engaged him.

Since early March, Howell has ordered seedlings of silver iodide smoke from the ground level. This method was also tried between 1 and 4:15 p.m. Saturday. Howell said that there were two showers east of the Catskills when he began seeding but that "there were no showers over the Catskills until after the cloud-seeding."

Howell said this seeding occurred between 2 and 3:45 p.m., about 10 miles northwest of the Schoharie watershed.