Seventy-eight years ago, on this day, November 13th, 1946,
On November 13, 1946 pilot Curtis Talbot, working for the General Electric Research Laboratory, climbed to an altitude of 14,000 feet about 30 miles east of Schenectady, New York. Talbot, along with scientist Dr. Vincent J. Schaefer, released three pounds of dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) into the clouds. As they turned south, Dr. Schaefer noted, “I looked toward the rear and was thrilled to see long streamers of snow falling from the base of the cloud through which we had just passed. I shouted to Curt to swing around, and as we did so we passed through a mass of glistening snow crystals! Needless to say, we were quite excited.” They had created the world’s first human-made snowstorm.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 310ppm. As of 2024 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was in the aftermath of World War Two it looked like we, as a species, would be able to do absolutely anything after all. We had just killed 200,000 of our own with two bombs. How powerful is that?
What we learn is that weather modification was an integral part of post war Climate Science. You can’t separate it easily.
What happened next the dream of weather modification continued, until it bumped up against complexity and scale in the 60s and 70s.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
November 13, 1963 – Ritchie Calder warns of trouble ahead because of carbon dioxide…
November 13, 1975 – climate testimony to House of Reps committee