RAIN DANCE TO RESEARCH: The Story of Weather Control

Proclaiming that mankind's ancient dream of changing the weather is now a reality, the Donnans preface their progress report with chapters surveying ancient myths, primitive ritual, forecasting proverbs, and traditional readings of animal clues (""bee behavior is almost infallible""). From an imaginary balloon they explain how the earth's motion, air movement, and atmospheric conditions affect the weather, then discuss the theory and practice of modern efforts to bring rain, suppress hail, moderate hurricanes and tornadoes, and dissipate fog. Seeding winter storm systems for snowpack increase and dispersing fog over airports have now become ""fully operational,"" report the Donnans, and other efforts have been variously effective. Despite concluding chapters that mention legal and environmental implications--of a ski resort snitching a competitor's snowfall, for example, or Russia reversing the course of a river--the orientation (in contrast to Bova's Man Changes the Weather, 1973) is overwhelmingly technical, the treatment heavily factual, the tone dry.