Josiah Neely of R Street Institute, a Texas-based organization that focuses on public policy issues including climate change, says conspiracy theories swirling about cloud seeding causing flooding in Kerr County are unfounded.
Cloud seeding increases the volume of rain by less than 20%.
"That’s not going to turn even an ordinary cloud into the flash flood that you saw in Kerrville and other places in Texas," Neely said. "When you talk to meteorologists, they’ll say [the storm came from] the moisture that was coming up from tropical storm Barry.”
Neely says proposed laws to ban cloud seeding could restrict access to a valuable tool used to help the agriculture industry, especially in times of drought.
Learn more about cloud seeding and flooding on The Source podcast at tpr.org.