Seeding Silver facts

While investigating facts about Seeding Silver, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Because of the frequency and massive destruction cause by hail in Alberta, insurance companies pay for cloud seeding planes that spray silver iodine to make the rain fall before it becomes hail.

Almost every country participates in "Cloud Seeding", A method of increasing rainfall from a cloud. Most places use aircraft to disperse something advanced like Silver Iodide or Dry Ice, but Russia tried using Cement and accidentally dropped a 25 Kg sack of cement through somebody house.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 12 of the best facts about Seeding Silver I managed to collect.

1. The breakthrough discovery that silver iodide could be used effectively in cloud seeding to artificially produce snow and rain was made by Bernard Vonnegut, the older brother of American novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

2. In 1967 U.S. began rainmaking campaign over Vietnam known as Operation Popeye. Cloud seeding involves spraying fine particles of silver iodide into a cloud system. 52+ countries have current weather modification programs. China’s said to have used ahead of Beijing Olympics-forcing early rain.

3. Kurt Vonnegut's brother Bernard was a famous scientist who discovered that clouds seeded with silver iodide could produce rain and snow.

4. The U.S Government between the 1960s and 1970s attempted to weaken hurricanes by "seeding" hurricanes with silver iodide. Hurricane Debbie was weakened by 31% by this method! (However regained power shortly after.)

5. Ancient Romans used a plant called Silphium as a natural contraceptive. It was so valuable that images of the plant and its seed were printed on silver coins. Historians theorize that the shape of the silphium seed pod is where our modern heart symbol came from.

6. From 1962-1983 the National Oceanic and Atmosphereic Association attempted to control the strength of hurricanes by "seeding" them with silver iodide

7. Cloud seeding; a way to modify the weather and form rain by spreading either dry ice, or more commonly, silver iodide aerosols, into the upper part of clouds usually by way of aircrafts

8. From 1962 to 1983, the United States tried to weaken hurricanes by seeding them with silver iodide

9. After the meltdown in Chernobyl, Russian military pilots seeded clouds using silver iodine to "wash out" radioactive particles drifting towards densely populated cities. People in Belarus reported black-colored rain shortly after aircraft had been spotted ejecting colored material behind them.