Ask Dan Column for Feb. 27, 2009 (Anti-hail Cannons)
From Thomas: Was there something tried in the 1800s to keep hail from falling?
If so what was it and how did it work?
Since man has been on earth, we have been trying to figure out a way to harness the weather. If we could control hail it would save an estimated $500 million in crop and property losses each year in the U.S. So far we have not been able to, but it is not for lack of trying.
In the late 1800s towering megaphone shaped anti-hail cannons were pointed to the clouds using gunpowder to shoot plums of smoke and hot gasses into the skies. The story goes, an Italian grape farmer was angry at the weather so to vent his frustration by firing a canon into the storm clouds. This is not a practice I recommend. The next year, he had less hail damage than his neighbors and the word and practice spread. By the turn of the century thousands of anti-hail cannons were being designed and used.
The practice soon died as farmers realized this practice was as much about luck as it was science. Today we know much more about the atmosphere. Hot gasses do not reach the altitude where hail is formed and the shock waves cannot disrupt hail growth.
Today, if you search online you can still find a few places making anti-hail guns
The literature from a New Zealand company explains how the anti-hail cannons work: “An explosive charge of acetylene gas & air is fired in the lower chamber of the machine. As the resulting energy passes through the neck & into the cone it develops into a force that becomes a shockwave.”
You are welcome to try it of course, but know your neighbors are not going to be too
happy. I read an account of one farmer who says his children have been waken at night by the loud booms and describes the noise as sounding like artillery fire. Isn’t modern science amazing?
If you have a weather question for Dan, send it to: askdan@kjrh.com
