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(Some Guy)   Farmers use "hail cannons" to stop storms from damaging crops. Neighbors complain the cannons are so good they're causing a drought   (gazette.com) divider line
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    More: Weird  
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10358 clicks; posted to Main » on 16 Jun 2006 at 3:53 AM (16 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



34 Comments     (+0 »)
 
UberDave [OhFark]
2006-06-16 1:10:22 AM  
That's a crock. We all know the weather can be controlled if farmer Bob smears himself with cow shiat and runs naked from one side of the farm to the other.

/it's the only way to be sure.
 
farkus888
2006-06-16 4:00:21 AM  
of course weather modification works... how else do you think the russians caused katrina?
 
neapoi [TotalFark]
2006-06-16 4:07:12 AM  
Funny story about those cannons... I used to live in a town with a lot of apple orchards. Farmers used those cannons to keep birds away... but I decided to put one outside my friends window.

For those of you who dont know, these cannons sound like a plane flying at mach 1 right over your house. Very very loud.

Anyways, I set it up in front of my friends open window at night, and pluged it in. It went off, and he craped his bed.

/no really, he crapped his bed.
//he was the only one home.
///it was totaly worth it.
 
LGeezer
2006-06-16 4:15:02 AM  
If they're causing a drought, the farmer's crop fails and the farmer ends up dead in a ditch and the hail cannonry stops and so it balances out. Unless the farmer is a cactus farmer.

/&dnrtfa
 
Rupert Birkin
2006-06-16 4:20:43 AM  
Cloudbusters are good, but nothing beats an orgone accumulator.

/makes you feel much greater
 
kataflok
2006-06-16 4:22:55 AM  
Well, now that we all believe in Voodoo, the only solution is to sacrifice him at midnight to appease the rain god so rain will once again fall on the land.
 
Nehmo
2006-06-16 4:31:49 AM  
It can't possibly work, but I must admit, it's cool.
 
MonkeyJesus
2006-06-16 4:36:22 AM  
it's all fun and games until someone invents a porn cannon


/now THAT'S a fresh vagina!!
 
Bon_Scott
2006-06-16 4:37:04 AM  
[image from images.amazon.com too old to be available]
 
AlienOmega
2006-06-16 4:46:02 AM  
neapoi: Anyways, I set it up in front of my friends open window at night, and pluged it in. It went off, and he craped his bed.

HA!
 
bakatare
2006-06-16 4:53:00 AM  
Quick! Someone call Art Bell, I think we've discovered the cause of punch-hole clouds.

[image from img150.imageshack.us too old to be available]

[image from img143.imageshack.us too old to be available]
 
AlienOmega
2006-06-16 5:00:30 AM  
bakatare: Quick! Someone call Art Bell, I think we've discovered the cause of punch-hole clouds.

WTF?
 
seanlavelle
2006-06-16 5:21:27 AM  
I hope they work, just because they sound awesome.
 
Lady J [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2006-06-16 5:30:05 AM  
Didn't RTFA (so what else is new) but I believe controlling the weather does work to an extent. There was a rich area in a Middle Eastern country that watered the land so much it actually altered the microclimate and they got rain.

Or have I just remembered some bullshiat story that isn't true?
 
yotta
2006-06-16 7:20:08 AM  
Wow, a giant calcium carbide cannon! Haven't seen them in years.
 
gruxx
2006-06-16 7:22:50 AM  
"The ranchers' theory is that the sound waves also cause rain clouds to evaporate."

I believe the word disperse should be used there. You can't evaporate moisture once it's already in the sky.

unless Idaho ruins the laws of physics.

/dang have a fire drill now.
 
vwfst55
2006-06-16 7:46:25 AM  
Someone call Al Gore. He invented the weather.
 
Metal
2006-06-16 8:09:17 AM  
No.

Eric Rademacher is an environmental engineer with Nissan who is an expert on the Hail Suppression System.

"Hailstones are formed and begin with a piece of dust in the clouds," he explains. "There is a lot of activity going on, and what we do is to de-ionize that activity in the clouds and keep those dust particles from collecting moisture out of the clouds in turn reacting and forming what we know as a hailstone."

Wrong.

Mike Biggerstaff, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, is even more skeptical. He calls the cannons a "waste of money," agreeing with Borges that hail damage depends solely on which cloud the farmer is under.

Biggerstaff said it's unlikely that a hail cannon can transmit enough energy to alter a weather pattern or break up hail before it hits the ground.

"A cannon will not stop it from hailing," he said.

Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric chemistry professor at Texas A & M University, said no amount of anecdotal evidence will convince the scientific community.

"People really can't prove that these types of cannons can suppress hail storms," Zhang said. "There has to be some scientific proof."

Bingo.
 
Jonakr
2006-06-16 8:28:09 AM  
"Nobody likes the drought," he said. "It has to be someone's fault."

Like...Nature perhaps?
 
Leggat
2006-06-16 8:28:49 AM  
Lady J, Methinks that Youthinks of the Dune series, by frank herbert.

It can't break the raindrops up into nada, the water is still up there, and it's most likely gonna fall.

Anyhow, why don't they ship these off to Tornado alley?

Metal as a scientist/engineer, I'll agree with your quotings, but the sad part is that the designer's haven't got the background to present the data, and credible scientist haven't the interest in testing the devices.
 
wrek
2006-06-16 8:58:13 AM  
Who cares if they work? $40,000 a piece for a .. what looks like a pulse-jet engine and a huge amplifying cone like a megaphone on the end? Hell yah, sign me up! It was only a matter of time before we could control the weather... however, you're only allowed to control the weather over your own property to a height of 100 feet. Ah the legislation begins...
 
Kyoki
2006-06-16 9:15:54 AM  
They've got one about 10 blocks from my house and we've NEVER gotten hail. Even when the rest of Colorado is getting pelted we've always been fine.

Ancedotal evidence to be sure, but I think they help.

/in Brighton Colorado as mentioned in said article
//yay slashies
///owie
 
Langdon Alger
2006-06-16 9:31:56 AM  
the whole idea sounds fishy---kind of like uncle zeke's wonder tonic or a monorail.
 
lady_nocturne
2006-06-16 9:49:30 AM  
And someone want to answer the question why they're trying to grow a hugely water-intensive crop in an arid climate?

Marc Reisner weeps from his grave.

/Cadillac Desert
//FANTASTIC book
 
Metal
2006-06-16 10:09:45 AM  
That's true leggat, you can't just say it doesn't work. Sound is used to break up [kidney] stones in the body. The cannon probably needs to be focused, more power, among other innovations. That might break ice, reduce a large hailshaft, even have other applications.
 
cable77
2006-06-16 10:11:38 AM  
All hail our hail cannon overlords.
 
SustainedHavoc
2006-06-16 10:27:12 AM  
Jonakr-

No, silly.

SUV's and Bush.
 
nytmare
2006-06-16 11:51:57 AM  
The first time a farmer who uses a cannon gets hailed on, it'll be because "he used it wrong".
 
xterraguy
2006-06-16 12:00:40 PM  
Nissan has these at it's Canton, MS plant: Link
 
nytmare
2006-06-16 2:31:15 PM  
it fires "ionized shock waves"

And there you have it -- "ion" -- the technobabble word of so many scam products.

xterraguy, I'm thinking about getting you matching hi's and he'r hail cannons for your next anniversary.
 
ForTheWin
2006-06-16 3:24:00 PM  
I believe the word disperse should be used there. You can't evaporate moisture once it's already in the sky.

The hell you can't! Just evaporate it again. Like into space. Let the martians deal with the weather.
 
Guysmiley
2006-06-16 3:24:15 PM  
Metal wrote: Sound is used to break up [kidney] stones in the body

Yeah, at POINT BLANK range! The power of a sound wave decreases at the cube of distance, so at 10 inches a wave would be 1000 times less powerful than at one inch. Now figure that out for 20,000-30,000 feet.
 
2Ah
2006-06-17 11:42:12 AM  
Guysmiley

Then how do we hear eachother?

/Oh yeh.. we are reading from the screen
//He wont read this thread ever again
///But that is ok because I prolly wont either.
 
studebaker hoch
2006-06-19 3:06:22 AM  
There was a fad for a while where towns would use field artillery to fire at approaching tornadoes.

These sound guns would probably have about as much effect:

Zilch.

/Though it would sure be fun to try!
 
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