Whenever there's a drought, someone will come up with the idea
of finding a rain maker, or holding a day of prayer for rain.
Now far be it for me to make light of people who are in truly
desperate straits and who are prepared to try anything to
relieve their precarious situation. The worst that can happen,
assuming no deliberate or unknowing fraud, is that everyone has
something else to think about for a day or so. For a while they
have some cause for hope.
And it may indeed rain and the drought will be over. But in most
cases not.
For more information on droughts, visit
http://www.home-weather-stations-guide.com/drought.html
Rain making can be divided into two types - cloud seeding, which
has strong scientific and engineering reasoning behind it, and,
for the moment, everything else.
Cloud seeding has been used to create or increase rain for over
50 years, and while the results are a little patchy and rarely
spectacular, when the right combination of cloud seeding method
and clouds is present, it has been shown to work many times
over, and in a cost effective way.
But what of the rest? I don't wish to question the power of
prayer, which presumably transcends all physical rules, but it
is worth looking at just what it would take to change the
weather pattern before it is ready to change.
But first let's take a look at the rain maker's methods.
They can be divided into two parts - local knowledge and
rainmaking techniques of ceremonies.
Firstly, rainmakers with a good reputation will generally be
folk with a strong knowledge of local weather, climate, and
seasonal changes. Some of these may be subconscious, but I think
we can give them some credit for astuteness and good
observational powers. This allows the rainmaker to practise his
or her rituals at a time when a change in the weather seems most
likely. With good local weather knowledge, chances of success
will be high, and in any event, payment is usually dependent on
success. It is also human nature to remember (and advertise) the
successes and forget the failures.
In primitive societies, rain makers usually have an inbuilt "get
out" clause. The rain making ceremony consists of certain things
done by the rain maker, supported by other rituals,
requirements, or prohibitions required of the community the rain
maker is serving.
These may be bans on certain foods or practices, but if the rain
doesn't come, who is to say that someone in the community failed
to play their part, destroying the rain maker's good efforts?
And eventually, with persistence, the rain will come.
So, in a very general way, that's how the rain maker works.
But let's see what he or she is up against.
Weather is the local end result of the effects of the vast
atmospheric circulation system, which works towards creating
some sort of balance between unequal heating of the earths
surface, the planet's rotation, transferring water from the
oceans to the atmosphere and back again, variable distribution
of warm and cold water currents in the oceans, and much, much
more.
All this takes a huge amount of energy. Let's put it in
perspective. In 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese
city of Hiroshima, effectively destroying it. That bomb was the
equivalent of 12,500 tons of TNT, or 12.5 kilotons. An average
thunderstorm generates the equivalent of 20 kilotons.
A hurricane generates the equivalent of a 10 megaton bomb - 10
million tons of TNT - every 20 minutes. Some people have asked
why large bombs aren't used to divert or destroy hurricanes.
Others have suggested that would be about as effective as
throwing a ping-pong ball at a charging elephant.
To create rain out of nothing, a rain maker would need to
control huge amounts of energy to overcome the inertia of the
stable weather systems associated with droughts. With that sort
of power, why hasn't the rain maker taken over the world,
hopefully for the good of all, or at the very least made his
fortune by affecting the results of horse races?
About the author:
Copyright 2005, Graham McClung. A retired geologist, Graham
McClung has had a lifelong interest in the outdoors. And where
there's outdoors there's weather. He is the editor of
Home-Weather-Stations-Guide.com, where you can find reviews and
advice to help you choose and use your own home weather station.
You can contact him by email at
information@home-weather-stations-guide.com
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