Pafos Press 27 October 2025
Meteorologist Kleanthis Nikolaidis spoke on Protoselidos about the prolonged drought and low water reserves. With obvious concern about the conditions prevailing in Cyprus, he warned that the country is going through another dry year, the fourth in a row, while the dams are only 11% full. “However, it does not resemble the end of October. Or the beginning of November,” he commented characteristically, emphasizing that the picture of autumn this year refers more to a prolonged summer.
Nikolaidis focused in particular on the issue of cloud seeding, that is, the artificial enhancement of rain, a practice that, as he recalled, had been implemented in Cyprus since the 1970s. “Enhancing rain by cloud seeding is nothing new. A rain enhancement program operated in Cyprus from 1971 to 1974, when knowledge of cloud physics was still limited. During the time of Archbishop Makarios, we had seen the first experiments. And today, with much more advanced technology, we don’t do it,” he said, noting meaningfully that “at least forty countries around the world, even in our region, use this technology.”
It is noted that “cloud seeding,” as it is called, is a technique that helps areas with severe drought to cope with water shortages. A team constantly monitors forecasts looking for potential seed clouds. The operations only work with cumulus clouds, which have a vertical shape. In this way, they identify clouds that are likely to cause rain and, with a spraying technique, produce more rain than predicted.
He argued that perhaps it is time for the Cypriot government to reconsider the possibility of such a program, “given the current circumstances.” As he explained, “we need to think about what it will cost us not to do it: the loss of income from farmers, the compensation that will need to be paid, the impact on our forests, the increased risk of fires, the emptying of dams, the collapse of the primary sector.” All of this, he said, must be calculated as a whole: “They should sit down, put it all together, add it up and get a result. This is how the right things are done.”
Nikolaidis revealed that in the past there was also a proposal from the United States for cooperation in cloud seeding programs, but it was rejected. “The Americans visited us, they proposed some things to us and we refused. They said then that it was the cost. "But let's put the cost next to the losses from the drought and the damage to agriculture," he commented characteristically.
