Filenews 22 March 2025 - by Angelos Nicolaou
A Cyprus-based company claims to have developed weather management technologies and artificial rain systems that have been successfully implemented in other countries. The company claims that it can bring rainfall to Cyprus in any month (July, August, etc.) but also reduce air temperatures by 3-5 degrees. Has cloud seeding been considered in Cyprus? "F" appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment and received an official briefing.
According to the Ministry, "Cyprus has considered the possibility of applying cloud seeding to increase rainfall, however, due to the not entirely predictable effectiveness of the method, as well as the lack of sufficient research data confirming any benefit, it did not proceed to its application, but to investigate it at a research level".
As he explains, the idea of managing weather conditions and artificially inducing rainfall through cloud seeding is not a novelty, as it has been scientifically studied for decades. However, it adds that its implementation remains limited, while its effectiveness depends on a multitude of parameters that have not been adequately investigated for Cyprus.
"In the past, experimental cloud seeding applications were carried out in Cyprus during the years 1972 and 1973, in order to address water scarcity. Nevertheless, the results were not particularly encouraging, as the success of this technique requires the existence of suitable clouds, i.e. ultra-cold, liquid and rich in water vapor. The necessary cloud cover is not always available in hot and dry climates, such as that of Cyprus, especially during the summer season," the Ministry of Agriculture states.
He notes that although there are claims that it is possible to cause rainfall even in the summer months, the method mentioned cannot create cloud cover from scratch. "In the absence of suitable clouds, sowing cannot lead to rainfall, which makes its implementation insufficient and unreliable for any period of time," he underlines.
Regarding the reduction of the temperature by 3-5°C, the Ministry emphasizes that this may happen very locally and indirectly, provided that rainfall has preceded it. "The decrease in temperature may be due to the evaporation of water and the reduction of the long wavelength of incoming radiation," he adds. Nevertheless, he notes, there is no scientifically published data that confirms that cloud seeding can lead to a significant and lasting decrease in temperature.
According to the Ministry, cloud seeding is still applied in specific countries, such as the United Arab Emirates. However, many countries that had started similar experiments, including Israel, stopped them due to unsuccessful results and a lack of proven effectiveness.
