Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human Affecting the Weather

Other forums are talking about cloud busting too:

http://www.neilslade.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=705&sid=fd2a8284dab979e72395fd70641ce445

Thanks, Coyote--I'm thinking NASA might find the skill of cloud-busting helpful this week!

Hi all.

I have been following this thread and have just spent most of the day CLOUD BUSTING.

These are my observations.

If indeed look at a small cloud it does appear that I can make it disappear within a minute or two.

At first I was very surprised by this. But after further investigation, the small clouds seem to disappear on there own anyway regardless of whether I am trying to bust them or not.

I looked at one small cloud then focused on another to make it disappear, BOTH CLOUDS were gone in the same time even though I only wanted to make the one I was focusing on disappear.

What do you think ?

Also could someone please elaborate on the process of doing it ?

I know we haven't added to this thread in nearly one month, but it took me that long to design a protocol for scientifically testing cloud busting "in the lab" (so to speak), actually outdoors.

Here is the setup that I am thinking of:

Identify what metorlogical conditions will make success easier for the test subject (i.e. type of clouds, cloud floor/ceiling, etc.) Watch the long term weather forcast when the required weather conditions will likely develop. The actual test will cover a 3 consecutive day window. Identify a suitable outdoor location with visual access to a large part of the sky. The test subject will pick the actual time of the test during the agreed upon 3-day window during daylight hours (to ensure the cameras work properly). The test subject alerts the testing supervisor 60 (or maybe 90) minutes before the test is to begin.

I am not sure what actual hardware is required, but here is what the hardware must do. One camera with a wide angle lense is set up a region of interest in the sky. The test subject picks the region of interest in the sky. The camera must have at least 90 min. of recording capability and the ability to switch tapes/memory twice during the test. The camera must also have a simeotaneous video output. That ouput goes to another recording device, say a laptop computer that has the ability for the test subject to mark objects in the sky on that 2nd recording (a telestrator). This second recording device must be able to record for 90 minutes. A third camera is set up to record the actions of the test at the 2nd recording device (laptop?).

The test is set up into 3 x 30 minute test periods that are consecutive. The test supervisor actually has to leave the area during the duration of the 90 minute test and should be told not to watch the sky or think about the test. Having someone in the area, especially a skeptic makes it less likely that the cloud busting will work. The reason for the third camera is prevent accusations of fraud by the test subject. An audible timer is setup to divide the test into the 3 periods. During the transition from the first period to the second period, the test subject changes the tape in the first camera. Also the test subject changes the tape during the transition from the second to the third time period (in the first camera).

The 3 time periods work as follows: The test subject takes no action during the first 90 min period and does not look at the sky. During the second time period, he/she attempts to bust as many clouds as possible. Before busting a cloud, he/she marks the cloud with telestrator on the second camera/laptop. During the third time period, the test subject again takes no action. Realize during the analysis of the third time period, that clouds may continue to disappear (a sort of momentum) or may start to reappear and be more dense-looking than before (a sort of reverse momentum).

Anaylsis of the tapes: The 3 tapes from the first camera are randomly distributed to 3 separate people for analysis (perhaps metorologists). They each pick 10 cloud features and track these features for the length of the tape, then without seeing the other tapes, try to determine if they have the 30 minutes of "active cloud busting" (the second 30 minutes). The reason 3 people are used is that the tapes are consecutive in time and it would be easy for someone viewing all 3 tapes to determine 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The lead researcher would analyze the 2nd tape/computer recording with the telestrator markings. The 3rd camera is used to verify that there was not fraud.

Repeat the test 10 times. 5 times with people who claim to be able to bust clouds. 5 times with voluteers with no training.

Coyote

Nice idea, Coyote, and I'll up you one.

First: Construct a baseline. Random footage of clouds in the sky. Determine at what rate they disperse during various conditions.

Second: Three groups are collected:

1)cloud buster believers
2)cloud buster is crap believers
3)what is cloud busting?

Third: each group has two trials (each repeated several times, of course):
Trial #1 bust clouds
Trial #2 Leave clouds alone


Then compare to baseline (of course you need to video tape everthing with proper equipment).

It would be interesting to see:

Does concentrated thoughts on busting clouds differ from baseline?
Can people who believe in cloud busting bust clouds better than non believers?
Can people who are unexposed to cloudbusing bust clouds?

Oh yea, I forgot the most, most important first step:

FIND A RICH PERSON OR INSTITUTE TO PAY FOR ALL THIS NONSENSE!!!!!

George

As a matter of interest, for those who would like to suggest that there is no scientific basis for "cloud busting", apparently it has been found that there is a part of the brain, that when activated properly, actually can be used to do this, and it has been done so under scientifically regulated experiment, at least according to this article entitled " Amygdala: Amazing Music Brain Adventure ".

Quote:

---

For many, this caused immediate dramatic auditory, visual, and physical sensations, as well as a very remarkable response to a "Cloudbusting" exercise.

---

So for the skeptics, who somewhat snooted at the suggestion that anyone could actually disintegrate clouds, I think there might be a slice of humble pie awaiting at the end of this article.

The other thing I found interesting, personally, is that I've been doing what they describe in the article most of my life, not realizing how I was doing it. When meditating, I've had a natural propensity to move my attention toward the middle of my head just behind my eyes and just about the height of the tops of my ears - which is exactly where this wonderful organ is located. This explains how I re-awakened many "gifts" (that I had exhibited as a young child) shortly after I started meditating on a regular basis.

Cheers!
Unis

A few weeks ago I was sitting outside of a coffee shop while waiting for my pickup to be ready at the auto shop. After working on my latte and writing in my journal for a while, I decided to look at the sky. The sky was about half full of big puffy white cumulus clouds. Cumulus clouds are low in the sky and easy to bust. I had about 1 hour to kill and I started "killing" clouds. I just looked at the sky, cleared my mind of any thoughts and invoked my will for a cloud to disappear. After picking a cloud, I would look down and feel the energy flow from the center of my brain (probably near my amygdala). I could feel the prana flow out of me.

After a few clouds, my awareness shifted to the inside of the clouds. I could "see" the outline of the cloud from from inside the cloud. I could "feel" the water vapor pressure. I focused on dispersing the water vapor. After 30 minutes of work, I brought my awareness back to "earth", so to speak. I survey the sky and most of the visible clouds were now gone. I felt humble and powerful at the same time.

Cloudbusting Experiment to Restore Wintertime Rains to Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean During an Extended Period of Drought.*

by James DeMeo, Ph.D.**

Field Operations Team: James DeMeo and Theirrie Cook***


During a normal rainy season, from two to four major cyclonic storms may push east across the Mediterranean Sea and make landfall in Israel each month. However, the winter rainy seasons for all years since 1988 had been subnormal. Few cyclonic storms entered the area during these years, and all the nations of the Eastern Mediterranean had been suffering from drought. This, in addition to a lack of adequate water conservation methods in virtually all nations of the area, led to a progressive decline in groundwater reserves and a lowering of the level of Israel's primary reservoir, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). By mid-January 1991, when a third year of drought was imminent, the level of Lake Kinneret was at a 60-year record low.(1) The lake supplies roughly a third of Israel's agricultural and domestic water needs, the other two thirds coming from groundwater and wells - however, with scanty rains, groundwater had also been rapidly drained by both Israeli and Palestinian farmers. A similar incessant exploitation of remaining groundwater reserves had been under way in neighboring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Salt water intrusion was increasingly affecting coastal wells due to overpumping inland, and salt springs threatened to further contaminate sweet water supplies, even in Lake Kinneret. The lake itself was also losing fish stock, due to drying up of lakeshore breeding grounds, and tourists were staying away. To make matters worse, severe dwindling of water supplies in the region promised to fuel regional disputes between Israelis and neighboring Arab states, given the dependence of both upon the limited waters of the lake, and the related groundwater supplies. Newspapers and television commentators painted a grim picture and openly quoted both Arab and Israeli leaders regarding the likelihood of war over dwindling water supplies.(1,2)

The water resource situation had been building to a crisis point over many years, partly due to the drought, but also due to a combination of social factors: population growth in every country of the arid region, increased use of irrigation agriculture, and failure to use existing water resources in a conservative manner. In 1988, for example, drought in the horn of Africa led to a dwindling of water in the Nile River. This brought Lake Nasser nearly to its absolute low red line, after which no more water would have flowed downstream through irrigation canals or into hydroelectric turbines. Some years before, with the Nile river reaching the point of exhaustion, Egypt actually threatened war with the Sudan and also Ethiopia, if either nation went ahead with plans to dam or divert Nile waters upstream. Water diversions in Eastern Turkey and Syria similarly produced hostile reactions from Iraq and Jordan, both of which stood to lose. Water-rights issues also partly underlie the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both sides have attacked water pumping stations allegedly diverting water from their own settlements. Syria once attempted to block the Golan Heights headwaters of the Jordan River, which supplies 25% of Israel's water supplies, and this threat was a factor in the outbreak of the 1967 war. By the end of that war Israel gained control of the Golan Heights, insuring a steady flow of Jordan headwaters. Israel has continued to challenge the Syrian and Lebanese governments over possible diversions of Jordan River water, and all three nations have unsuccessfully attempted to assert authority over the mostly untapped water resources of the Litanni River in Southern Lebanon. Control of water resources has historically been a hot, fighting issue for every nation of this arid region, and the current drought situation had inflamed them all the more.

Regarding this particular drought, rains had been scanty for most of the Eastern Mediterranean, from Cyprus south to Africa, for three years. Strict water rationing had already been established on Cyprus, where domestic water was delivered to most homes for only two hours a day. By early 1991, water delivery on Cyprus was restricted to two hours per week.(3)

In spring of 1991, I was contacted regarding the serious drought situation in Israel and asked what the possibilities were for increasing rains or restoring the normal rainy season to the region by using the technique of cloudbusting. After some preliminary analysis of the situation, the possibility of success in Israel appeared to be high, an assessment based not only on my own past successful experiences with the cloudbuster in the deserts of the American Southwest, but also on the equally positive results of cloudbuster experiments in Israel undertaken by the associates of Dr. Walter Hoppe in the 1960s and 1970s (4), and by Dr. Richard Blasband of the American College of Orgonomy in 1983.(5) Both Hoppe's and Blasband's experiments were followed by significant rainfall increases, although to my knowledge no attempts were made at long-term applications of the technique. Hoppe left Israel in the 1950s to establish a clinic in Germany, while Blasband resides permanently in the USA. Blasband was one of the first individuals in the USA to undertake controlled studies evaluating Reich's biophysical findings (6), and he has led a team of researchers on the issue of cloudbusting. His cloudbusting work in Israel was followed by major rains over all of Israel. Also of significant note were the 1963-1964 cloudbuster tests by Israeli meteorologist Gad Assaf, who observed significant decreases in the 500 mb pressure surface over the region after cloudbusting, as compared to the objective barotropic prediction.(7) These positive experiences by others provided a solid foundation for my feeling that the present drought could be reduced or completely ended through cloudbusting.

After reviewing climate conditions for Israel, it was determined that two attempts would be made to use the cloudbuster, first in November 1991, and second in February 1992. It was hoped that the cloudbuster would complement the natural tendencies towards rain that would take place at the onset of the wintertime rainy period. Based upon prior experiences with the cloudbuster in Greece and California, which have similar "Mediterranean" climate types (winter rainy season, summer dry), it was anticipated that successful cloudbusting in the latter half of November would produce a higher than normal quantity of December rainfall, with beneficial effects that might last into January 1992. The second operation in late February was timed to follow what we anticipated would be the end of any persisting effects from the November cloudbusting. Or, if the November operations were a total failure, February gave a second chance. As everything was being planned from offices in the USA, the actual dates of operations were determined months in advance of the arrival of the research team in Israel. Other than simple climate data and a few informal, and often contradictory, opinions of meteorologists given in newspapers, there were no certain long term forecasts for the region - the vast majority of long-term forecasts are, in any case, not particularly reliable. Several months before the onset of the winter rainy season, for example, one Israeli forecaster predicted a wetter-than-normal rainy season based upon dusts from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. However, this same volcano was being cited by forecasters in California, where we lived, to predict a drier-than-normal year. Other forecasters in Israel whom we met with privately were predicting another dry year.

Logistical planning for OROP Israel got underway as early as July 1991, when letters and memoranda were drafted and sent to various sponsors, volunteers and observers of the Israel experiments, outlining how the operations would proceed and the specific results which were anticipated; these are reproduced in the published Special Report.(8)




Atmospheric Conditions in Israel, as seen from an airplane and on the ground, immediately after our arrival on 12 November 1991. Heavy dor-haze obscures the atmosphere, blocking the entrance of rain-bearing air masses and storm systems.


The November 1991 Cloudbusting Operations in Israel:
From Drought to Heavy, Repetitive Rainstorms

According to our plans and specifications, a small but powerful cloudbuster was constructed by a private engineer and machine shop in Israel. It was operated manually, mounted on a truck during transportation, but removed and set on the ground during operations. Figure 1 is a photo of this cloudbuster, set up and operating on the shores of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). It was given the name Sabra, which is Hebrew for native of Israel. The atmosphere depicted in this photo is representative of the widespread hazy, dorish conditions we observed upon arrival in Israel, on the 12th of November 1991. The horizon is nearly 100% obscured, to the point that mountains on the other side of the lake, only a few kilometers away, can hardly be seen. On that day, Israeli television announced that Lake Kinneret was down to its lowest point in history, only 2 millimeters above the red line, due to drought and heavy water demands. In Figure 1, the low water level is made apparent by the position of the dock at the far right side of the photo.




Figure 1: Cloudbuster Sabra, at work on the West shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Tiberius, Northern Israel, on 17 November 1991, at the time of a severe 3-years long drought. Operations had been underway for around one hour at the time this photograph was taken. The view is to the East. The photo immediately below shows this same landscape from a slightly higher perspective, looking south. Both photos show a heavy dor layer and a low level of water in the lake. Compare these two photos to the ones which follow, taken several months after rains were restored to the region.


After our arrival, several days were required for making final preparations for the work, and also to check out the cloudbuster for mechanical problems. By the 15th of November, and prior to any work with the cloudbuster, the Israeli meteorological service announced the onset of an episode of Sharav or Hamsin winds, which blew from the interior deserts westward, towards the Mediterranean. This was an upsetting problem for us to encounter, as we knew from past experience that such desert winds would work against any increase in moisture and rains which the cloudbusting might bring. Indeed, we had specifically planned the first operations for late November with the expectation that, by that date, the desert atmosphere would have naturally moved south, as is the usual case in November. Given the Sharav, we anticipated a delayed response to the cloudbuster. By November 15th, the weather over Israel had developed a hardened, desert-like character, similar to more arid summertime conditions. While it was difficult for us to predict just how responsive the atmosphere would be to the cloudbuster, the presence of the Sharav suggested a delayed response, at best.

Starting late in the evening on the 15th of November, and periodically until November 24th, cloudbuster Sabra was moved and operated from one location in Israel to the next, from Kfar Blum in the north to Eilat in the south, according to the schedule given below. Additional cloudbusting was simultaneously undertaken by members of the Hellenic Orgonomic Association in Greece and on the Island of Cyprus, as coordinated by long distance telephone and directed by myself. The operational plan of action was ambitious and bold, but adequate to the task, and necessary given the severity of the crisis situation being confronted. Weather conditions in Israel and over the Mediterranean were constantly monitored for any signs of change in the weather situation, through a variety of methods:

1. The USA-based WeatherFax company provided timely weather maps, via long-distance fax;
2. The Israeli Meteorological Service at Bet Degan and the Rainfall Augmentation Branch at Ben Gurion Airport provided telephone updates on weather conditions, and on several occasions we visited the facilities to view the satellite images or obtain weather data;
3. We constantly monitored English language weather forecasts from various radio and television stations in the region, notably the BBC broadcasts from Cyprus.
4. Most importantly, through our own network of personal contacts in the region, in Israel, Greece, Crete and Cyprus, we could obtain on-the-spot descriptions of both prevailing weather and orgone-energetic conditions in the atmosphere.

Information gathered from these various sources was correlated on the weather map and integrated with our own observations, as made in the field during the cloudbuster operations. In this manner we were able to develop a reasonably precise and timely picture of then-current weather conditions - from both classical meteorological and orgone-energetic viewpoints - for the entire eastern Mediterranean region.



Figure at Left: Cloudbuster Sabra being set up for operations on the Jordan River, 15-16 November 1991. The author, James DeMeo and assistant Theirrie Cook, preparing equipment at a time when the Jordan River was at a very low stage over many years. Another photo of the Jordan is provided below, after the cloudbusting operations and several months of good rains, of this exact same spot showing it to be completely covered over with flowing water.


OROP ISRAEL, OPERATIONS TIMETABLE, 1991:

Nov. 12: Cloudbuster team arrives in Israel. Preparations get underway. Heavy Dor.
Nov. 13-14: Preparations continue. Cloudbuster mounted on rental truck. Sharav winds develop, dorish conditions increase.
Nov. 15: Cloudbuster trucked to Kfar Blum, in northeast Israel. OPERATIONS BEGIN, set up late PM on the Jordan River. Cloudbuster also set into operation on Crete, late PM. Winds respond, but dor infestation is thick.
Nov. 16: Work continues at Jordan River site, Kfar Blum. Dor lessening to west, continues thick to east. Additional small cloudbusters set up in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece. Orgone (jet) streams active over region.
Nov. 17: Cloudbuster moved from Jordan River site to Lake Kinneret, at Tiberius. Sharav decreasing. Dor significantly less to west. Rains over Greece, with new storms entering central Mediterranean. Cloudbusters in Greece are shut down.
Nov. 18: Operations ended in Tiberius with move to Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea coast. No work undertaken in Israel today; cannot find suitable draw site. Cloudbusting continues in Cyprus.
Nov. 19: Operations resume at noontime in Tel Aviv, at coast. Thick dorish "marine layer" is present. Fog, stratus and light drizzle by late PM. New fronts on weather map. Rains forecast.
Nov. 20: Move from Tel Aviv to Ein Geddi, on the Dead Sea. Set up by late PM. Heavy dor.
Nov. 21: Move from Dead Sea site south to Eilat, on Red Sea. Continuing dor busting. Cyprus work also continues. Significant rain fronts near Italy, slowly moving east.
Nov. 22: Continuing work at Eilat. Storm over Italy slows, is now a "cut-off" low pressure.
Nov. 23: Long drive back to Tel Aviv, set up on Mediterranean Sea. Rains now in Greece, but not Cyprus. Tremendous dor is being mobilized, pushing ahead of storms. All workers in Greece and Cyprus are overworked, dorized, despondent; operations are completely ended in those locations. Only Sabra continues operations in Israel. Set up only by late PM in Tel Aviv.
Nov. 24: Operations continue at Tel Aviv until 7:00 PM, when ALL OPERATIONS END. Satellite images indicate strong superimposition developing over eastern Mediterranean, as "cut-off" low migrates slowly eastward, towards Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel.
Nov. 25: Storm in Mediterranean still holding together, with rains in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus.
Nov. 26: More dor pushed into Israel, ahead of approaching storm. Meteorologists still do not forecast any significant rain, as they expect storm to deviate northward.




Cloudbuster Sabra set up and working at the Tel Aviv Marina, one of many locations in Israel where the apparatus was set into operations between 15-24 November 1991.


Rains began falling in Israel on November 27, as the storm arrived at the coast, and rains continued for the next week. Good to heavy rains also fell across Lebanon, Cyprus, and Turkey, ending only around December 7th. A 50-year rainfall record was broken in Israel. It is significant to note this was the very same storm which was previously observed as a Mediterranean weather front near Italy on November 21, and which developed into a "cut-off low" which moved east towards Greece on November 22. That storm even went "retrograde" (temporarily moved westward) before finally moving eastward again towards Crete and Israel. The storm's path was unusually far south as contrasted to the path of other storms throughout the drought period.








Satellite Image from 25 November 1991, showing a large storm system moving eastward in the Mediterranean Sea. This storm, which followed right on the heels of the cloudbusting operations, would push onshore across Israel two days later, bringing one of the heaviest rains on record, and with the most intensive rains of the Mediterranean region falling within Israel and Western Jordan.








This rainfall episode, of November 27 to December 7 is plotted on the Percentage of Normal Precipitation map given in Figure 2.(9) Israel, the West Bank territories, and northwest Jordan received the greatest portion of these rains, from 200 to 400 percent of normal. By December 7, some Israeli and Jordanian regions had received nearly 90% of the normal annual rainfall. The mountains in Turkey, Cyprus, Syria and Lebanon received unexpected heavy snows, and several rivers in the mountains of Cyprus were flowing with water for the first time in years.(9) It was, indeed, a major shift in weather conditions, from the previously droughty and stagnant conditions, to a wet and moving, highly animated atmosphere.




Figure 2: Percentage of Normal Precipitation Map, Eastern Mediterranean, Nov. 27 to Dec. 7, 1991, showing rainfall contours for the first major storm to enter Israel shortly after the onset of cloudbusting operations.(9) This exceptionally heavy rainfall episode began only 10 days after cloudbusting operations were initiated, and only a few days after those operations ended. The storm which brought these rains had developed in the western and central Mediterranean as a "cut-off low" on approximately Nov. 21-22, during the cloudbusting operations. It slowly moved eastward, intensifying as it approached the coast of Israel. Six additional episodes of moderate-to-heavy rainfall entered Israel after this storm, from mid-December through March of 1992, and these are identified on the graph below, in Figure 4.
After this major breakthrough of rains, a pulsatory pattern of rainfall was established in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, far beyond anything expected or previously observed by members of the cloudbusting team. A second storm passed through the Eastern Mediterranean, including Israel, after December 8th. By December 15, the level of Lake Kinneret was up 60 cm from the red line! Rains were also still progressing in Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt. New storms pushed into the area with heavy snow after December 31st; Jerusalem received a record 16" of snow, while 24" fell in Amman Jordan. Additional storms pushed into Israel and across the entire Eastern Mediterranean through January and February 1992 as well, making the planned second phase of operations completely unnecessary.

While virtually all reservoirs, rivers and lakes of the region would fill to capacity, and the water shortages of the area would be completely wiped away within a few dramatic months, our research team had not anticipated the strength of the storms which subsequently developed in the eastern Mediterranean, nor the exceptional, even historical quantities of rainfall and snow which fell across the area. Indeed, in my 15+ years of working with the cloudbuster in drought and desert regions on three continents, I had never before witnessed such a powerful response to cloudbusting - the impression gained was of the sudden release of an incredible accumulated atmospheric tension, with an associated shift of climate back towards what probably existed prior to the original desertification of the Saharasian region several thousand years ago.




The Jordan River, near Kfar Blum in Northern Israel, at high flow. Only a few months earlier, our cloudbuster had been operating at a location close to the center of these photos, at a spot now under several meters of flowing water.





The local populations in most cases celebrated the arrival of those storms, and endured the inconveniences and disruptions of daily life due to heavy rains without complaint; the water was, after all, a badly-needed resource. In some cases, however, people were not well prepared for the magnitude of the temporary weather changes. For example, drainage systems in some cities had been poorly maintained, and were overgrown with brush, while in others, officials had ignored the prior warnings of hydrologists and urban planners, allowing people to build homes in low-lying, flood-prone areas. When the heavy rains came, traffic often came to a stand-still for hours. Previously bone-dry river beds and conduits filled quickly, and overflowed onto major roads. In a few cases, where homes and businesses had been irresponsibly constructed down in dry river beds, water collected and sometimes flooded such structures. A few deaths also occurred on the highways due to the fatal combination of rain-slick streets and highway speeding, or when people attempted to drive their cars through rain-swollen streams. For the general period of rains, however, traffic fatalities declined in a net manner, as most people slowed down, and were possibly more alert due to alleviation of prior suffocating dorish conditions.(10) Additional difficulties also occurred in a few areas when power lines were knocked down by heavy winds or accumulated snow, leaving many persons without power, sometimes for days.

One major surprise was the high level of agricultural productivity which developed after the storms. From early newspaper reports, and from our own observations made later in February, flooded farm fields could be seen everywhere, and we anticipated a temporary devastation to the agricultural economy. However, the excess water had a net beneficial effect upon agriculture in the region. Aside from providing for secure irrigation water supplies in lakes and reservoirs, the excess water flushed away years of accumulated soil salts, replenished subsoil moisture supplies, greened pasturelands, and benefited many crops which had just begun to sprout in the fields. Orchards which had been previously abandoned due to inadequate rains or salinized irrigation waters, and which had died back to leafless twigs and barren stumps, in some cases began to bloom again with unexpected vigor and fruit production. While some farm animals, chickens and fruit trees were lost to episodes of freezing conditions, the abundance of fruits and vegetables was so great only a few months later that prices in the Israeli markets actually declined by 14.3%, producing a 23-year record drop of -0.4% in the cost-of-living statistics.(11) This price decrease was not due to cheaper agricultural imports, as Israel is a net exporter of fruits and vegetables in the region. However, I do not wish to paint a completely rosy face on these weather changes. In other areas, such as Egypt, Turkey, and Lebanon, greater difficulties were experienced from the winter storms. There was, additionally, a complicating factor in the analysis of these strong storms: a very ambitious Israeli government cloudseeding program, employing seeding aircraft and several dozen ground-based seeding generators, was constantly underway during every single storm cycle, even during the heaviest of downpours and flooding. It was ended only in late February, after widespread public protest. While the cloudseeding was not a factor in bringing about the end to drought in the eastern Mediterranean (they were seeding also during drought years), it did appear to contribute significantly to the flooding problems, once the cloudbusting had eliminated the energetic barrier to the Mediterranean storms. These problems, as well as operational details and characteristics of the drought-breaking storms, have been more fully discussed in the Special Report.(8)

We returned to Israel during the first half of February 1992, the time of the fifth major pulse of rainfall - the longest and most sustained to occur - after the cloudbusting operations. No additional cloudbusting was undertaken in Israel at that time, for the reason of water abundance, as discussed above. However, a short cloudbusting operation was undertaken during our February visit to slow down and reduce the influx of moisture and energy streaming into the eastern Mediterranean. This operation was performed at my request and direction by our associates and helpers in Greece, and it was successful in temporarily diminishing the rains.

We continued to observe and document the ground-level changes first hand, traveling essentially the same route previously covered during the November 1991 cloudbusting operations, except that in a few cases excess water on the roads closed some areas to routine travel. We even observed some moderate rains in the area around the Dead Sea, and during our visit, snow was observed to blanket parts of the Negev as far south as the hills overlooking Eilat, which is deep within the Sahara. Moreover, several new modest-sized lakes had appeared on the Israeli countryside, having formed from pooling rains in areas which had not received so much water in centuries. These latter phenomena were almost historically unique, we were told. Besides the spectacle of the rains and storms themselves, the most incredible and remarkable two aspects we observed on this February trip were:

1) The complete absence of any hazy, dorish qualities to the atmosphere. The air was not only cool and crisp to breathe and walk in, but it was absolutely transparent, allowing unrivaled views of surrounding snow-capped mountains and hills. Figure 3, for example, is a photograph taken in early February 1992, from the same cloudbusting site on Lake Kinneret as given in Figure 1. The difference in the quality of the atmosphere, its greater transparency and crispness, as well as the increased height of water in the lake are immediately apparent, as are the mountains on the other side of the Lake, which could hardly be seen the previous November.




Figure 3: Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) under sparkling and transparent atmospheric conditions in early February 1992, after several months of good rain. Notice the clearly-observable mountains in the background, the sea birds, the moving environmental conditions, and the increased height of the water level as compared to the conditions in late November, seen in Figure 1. Several additional photos of the Lake after the operations are given below.


2) The vegetation-barren areas of the Negev Desert, and those regions surrounding the Dead Sea, were in the process of greening up with grasses and blooming with flowers. In particular, formerly dry wadis (river beds) in the desert areas had greened up and bloomed significantly, with new streams and waterfalls on the landscape. These were extraordinary observations, quite rare, and most beautiful to behold (Figure 5). By March 1992, the blooming of flowers and grasses in the formerly-barren areas of the desert were so spectacular that special bus expeditions were being organized by Israeli travel bureaus, so that people could see the highly unusual phenomenon for themselves.

By the time we left Israel on February 12th, the rains had eased up, to everyone's relief. Only one more pulse of rain came into the region after our departure, in late February. By the first of March a total of six major pulses of rainfall, each from five to ten days in duration, had passed through the eastern Mediterranean. Through January and February, with the dramatically increased rainfall and surface water runoff, the level of Lake Kinneret continued to rise dramatically. The precious excess water was being pumped from the Lake into previously depleted groundwater aquifers using every available pump. On February 9th, the Deganya Dam, which controls water flowing from Lake Kinneret south towards the Dead Sea, was opened, allowing even more water to drain away. In spite of the pumping and opening of the dam, by the end of March, Lake Kinneret was brim full. This raised a fear of flooding to the coastal cities around the lake, such as the resort town of Tiberius, and so an unprecedented decision was made to keep the Deganya Dam open, allowing even more water to flow into the Dead Sea. It was originally believed that the dam would be open only for a few days, but the waters continued to rise so rapidly that the dam remained open for six full weeks, the longest opening period on record. So precious was the water flowing into the lake that planners had delayed the decision to open the dam. Even a special net placed across the opening of the dam, to keep the Lake's fish population from being swept downstream, was removed to allow a more rapid outflow. The dam was finally shut in late March, after a record 6 weeks opening, but pumping out of the lake into groundwater aquifers continued. Flooding of coastal towns did not occur. By May and June, the lake was still receiving such great quantities of surface runoff from surrounding areas, that it was still close to its maximum level. It had proved to be the wettest winter rainy season ever recorded, since record-keeping began at the turn of the century.(12) Figure 4 presents a graph of daily precipitation values for 13 measuring stations in Israel.(13) The period of the November 1991 cloudbusting operations to bring rain and end drought are marked with arrows.




Figure 4: Daily Precipitation Values, Average for 13 Stations in Israel, for the period from 1 October 1991 to 31 March 1992. The periods of cloudbusting operations are marked with arrows, and roughly six major pulses of rainfall can be identified on the graph. Only the first of these rainfall episodes, that of Nov. 27 to Dec. 7, is plotted on the map in Figure 2, above.(13)
Weather over the eastern Mediterranean remained several degrees cooler than the climatological average for the spring and summer months of 1992, and rare late spring and summertime rains swept parts of the region. The following quotations underscore the highly unusual nature of these wintertime rains. Figure 5 shows the highly unusual desert-greening which took place in the harsh environment surrounding the Dead Sea.


Feb. 15: News Report:"Its official. The current and far-from-over winter is the wettest in a century in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where there hasn't been so much rain since records were first kept in 1904." 75 cm of snow on Mt. Hermon, the heaviest snowfall in 140 years. "In the Golan Heights, snow is considered a blessing... Mt. Hermon is composed of eroded limestone, which absorbs water into its many crevices. The melting snow trickles down into multi-year reservoirs, which feed the headwaters of the Jordan river, providing the only source of water to the Kinneret during the summer."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 15 Feb. 92, p.11)
April 11: News Report: "The hills are alive again. The winter's rains transformed the face of the Judean Desert... Never in all their winters had they seen their familiar pasture so transformed. From the craggy heights where it starts just east of the Judean Hills to the clifftops overlooking the Dead Sea, the desert was carpeted with flowers and grasses. Asher, a veteran guide for the Metzoke Dragot desert tour company, had never seen anything like it either. 'This winter has been unlike any other'."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 11 April 92)

June 17: News Report:"Meanwhile, the water level in the Kinneret is remaining at virtually its maximum mark. This is the first time since the national water carrier was opened in 1964 that anybody can remember such a high water level in the Kinneret in the middle of June. The lake yesterday stood at 208.91 meters below sea level, just one centimeter from its maximum high-water mark."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., June 17-18, 1992)

"As a result of the unusually wet winter, we have had a glorious spring with lush growth everywhere and significant reserves of water both above ground and underground. The Jordan is still extraordinarily high for this time of the year."
(Personal Communication, P. Rimon, Kfar Blum, 19 May 92)

"It's the nicest spring ever in Israel. Flowers are all over the Negev, and people go to look and can't believe it!"
(Personal Communication, L. Axelrod, Tel Aviv, May 92)



Figure 5: Greening of desert landscapes, in formerly barren, rocky regions; a sea of wildflowers on the edge of the Dead Sea, around 10 February 1992.


POSTSCRIPT, January 1993. News reports from Israel indicate the subsequent winter rainy season, of 1992-1993, is also an exceptionally wet one for the entire eastern Mediterranean, even though no additional cloudbusting has been undertaken. The drought did not return, and appears to be ended completely for the foreseeable future.

Citations:

1. Williams, D.: "Taking a Stroll on the Parched Sea of Galilee", New York Times, 15 Jan. 1991.

2. Goell, Y.: "Mideast Faces Withdrawal Symptoms, Water Shortage", Jerusalem Post, International Edition, 5 Nov.1991; Anon. Editorial, "Peace Talks at Water Level", Jerusalem Post, International Edition, 2 Sept. 1991; also as quoted from CNN television report on water issues in the Middle East, Summer 1991.

3. Personal communications with several residents of Cyprus.

4. Rosen, R.: "Report on Cloudbusting Operations and Rain Fall", unpublished report; anon. "News and Comment: Weather Control in Israel", Creative Process, III (1):2, 1963; Greenfield, J.: "Between orgonomy and Jewishness", Energy and Character, 7(3):58-59, 1976; Gassner, M.: "Orgonomy in Israel: Yesterday and Today", Offshoots of Orgonomy, 10:53-57, Spring 1985.

5. Blasband, R.: "Summary Report of Orgonomic Weather Control Operations in Israel, 1983", unpublished report.

6. See the citation list at the end of this document, and the author index for listings in Bibliography on Orgone Biophysics, Natural Energy Works, PO Box 864, El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA, 1986.

7. Personal communication, letter from Gad Assaf to James DeMeo, 12 Feb. 1979.

8. DeMeo, J.: OROP Israel 1991-1992: A Cloudbusting Experiment to Restore Wintertime Rains to Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean During an Extended Period of Drought, Special Report, Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory, PO Box 1395, El Cerrito, CA, 94530 USA, 1992.

9. Global Climate Highlights Feature Map, Weekly Climate Bulletin, USDOC/NOAA, Washington, D.C., for week ending 7 Dec. 1991.

10. Jerusalem Report, 26 December 1991.

11. Jerusalem Post, 27 June 1992, p.21.

12. Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 15 Feb. 92, p.11.

13. Data from Agroclimatological Summary, Bet Dagan Climate Center, Israel, weekly reports dated October 1991 through March 1992. The 13 weather stations were: Acre Farm, Ein Ha Haresh, Bet Dagan, Negba, Dorot, Besar Farm, Matityahu Farm, Kibbutz Ramat-David, Netiv Ha Lamed Hey, Beersheva, Kefar Blum, Massada, and Tirat Zvi.

A Cloudbusting Experiment to Restore Wintertime Rains to Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean During an Extended Period of Drought.*

by James DeMeo, Ph.D.**

Field Operations Team: James DeMeo and Theirrie Cook***






James DeMeo and Theirrie Cook, in a sea of wildflowers on the normally barren edge of the Dead Sea, 10 February 1992, after several months of exceptional rains which followed their cloudbusting operations of late November 1991. More photos and discussion follows.

* Published in Pulse of the Planet #4, 1993, p.92-98. A previous version of this article appeared in the Journal of Orgonomy, 26(2):248-265, Fall/winter 1992. Condensed from a Special Report of the same title.(8) All text, photos and graphs Copyright (C) 1989 by James DeMeo and the Orgone Biophysical Research Lab.
** Director of Israel Field Operations, and Director of Research, Orgone Biophysical Research Lab, PO Box 1148, Ashland, Oregon 97520. 541-552-0118 info@orgonelab.org

*** Director, Orgonics company, Petaluma, California, www.orgonics.com, Email: orgonics@aol.com

Acknowledgements: Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Fox Foundation. A heartfelt thanks to Richard J. Fox for his generous support and encouragements. A note of special thanks and appreciation to Theirrie Cook, one of the principal workers during this project, and also to the members and friends of the Hellenic Orgonomic Association, who undertook coordinated field work in Greece and Cyprus. Thanks also to various persons in the USA and overseas who helped with crucial logistical support, information, research data, and other large helps: Lydia Axelrod, Dr. Richard Blasband, Schmuel Cantor, Madeleine Gassner, Pinchas Rimon, Prof. Moshe Tal, and M.K. Yoash Tsiddon.



Background to Israel Cloudbusting Operations:
Drought and Water Crisis in the East Mediterranean

During a normal rainy season, from two to four major cyclonic storms may push east across the Mediterranean Sea and make landfall in Israel each month. However, the winter rainy seasons for all years since 1988 had been subnormal. Few cyclonic storms entered the area during these years, and all the nations of the Eastern Mediterranean had been suffering from drought. This, in addition to a lack of adequate water conservation methods in virtually all nations of the area, led to a progressive decline in groundwater reserves and a lowering of the level of Israel's primary reservoir, Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). By mid-January 1991, when a third year of drought was imminent, the level of Lake Kinneret was at a 60-year record low.(1) The lake supplies roughly a third of Israel's agricultural and domestic water needs, the other two thirds coming from groundwater and wells - however, with scanty rains, groundwater had also been rapidly drained by both Israeli and Palestinian farmers. A similar incessant exploitation of remaining groundwater reserves had been under way in neighboring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Salt water intrusion was increasingly affecting coastal wells due to overpumping inland, and salt springs threatened to further contaminate sweet water supplies, even in Lake Kinneret. The lake itself was also losing fish stock, due to drying up of lakeshore breeding grounds, and tourists were staying away. To make matters worse, severe dwindling of water supplies in the region promised to fuel regional disputes between Israelis and neighboring Arab states, given the dependence of both upon the limited waters of the lake, and the related groundwater supplies. Newspapers and television commentators painted a grim picture and openly quoted both Arab and Israeli leaders regarding the likelihood of war over dwindling water supplies.(1,2)

The water resource situation had been building to a crisis point over many years, partly due to the drought, but also due to a combination of social factors: population growth in every country of the arid region, increased use of irrigation agriculture, and failure to use existing water resources in a conservative manner. In 1988, for example, drought in the horn of Africa led to a dwindling of water in the Nile River. This brought Lake Nasser nearly to its absolute low red line, after which no more water would have flowed downstream through irrigation canals or into hydroelectric turbines. Some years before, with the Nile river reaching the point of exhaustion, Egypt actually threatened war with the Sudan and also Ethiopia, if either nation went ahead with plans to dam or divert Nile waters upstream. Water diversions in Eastern Turkey and Syria similarly produced hostile reactions from Iraq and Jordan, both of which stood to lose. Water-rights issues also partly underlie the Arab-Israeli conflict. Both sides have attacked water pumping stations allegedly diverting water from their own settlements. Syria once attempted to block the Golan Heights headwaters of the Jordan River, which supplies 25% of Israel's water supplies, and this threat was a factor in the outbreak of the 1967 war. By the end of that war Israel gained control of the Golan Heights, insuring a steady flow of Jordan headwaters. Israel has continued to challenge the Syrian and Lebanese governments over possible diversions of Jordan River water, and all three nations have unsuccessfully attempted to assert authority over the mostly untapped water resources of the Litanni River in Southern Lebanon. Control of water resources has historically been a hot, fighting issue for every nation of this arid region, and the current drought situation had inflamed them all the more.

Regarding this particular drought, rains had been scanty for most of the Eastern Mediterranean, from Cyprus south to Africa, for three years. Strict water rationing had already been established on Cyprus, where domestic water was delivered to most homes for only two hours a day. By early 1991, water delivery on Cyprus was restricted to two hours per week.(3)

In spring of 1991, I was contacted regarding the serious drought situation in Israel and asked what the possibilities were for increasing rains or restoring the normal rainy season to the region by using the technique of cloudbusting. After some preliminary analysis of the situation, the possibility of success in Israel appeared to be high, an assessment based not only on my own past successful experiences with the cloudbuster in the deserts of the American Southwest, but also on the equally positive results of cloudbuster experiments in Israel undertaken by the associates of Dr. Walter Hoppe in the 1960s and 1970s (4), and by Dr. Richard Blasband of the American College of Orgonomy in 1983.(5) Both Hoppe's and Blasband's experiments were followed by significant rainfall increases, although to my knowledge no attempts were made at long-term applications of the technique. Hoppe left Israel in the 1950s to establish a clinic in Germany, while Blasband resides permanently in the USA. Blasband was one of the first individuals in the USA to undertake controlled studies evaluating Reich's biophysical findings (6), and he has led a team of researchers on the issue of cloudbusting. His cloudbusting work in Israel was followed by major rains over all of Israel. Also of significant note were the 1963-1964 cloudbuster tests by Israeli meteorologist Gad Assaf, who observed significant decreases in the 500 mb pressure surface over the region after cloudbusting, as compared to the objective barotropic prediction.(7) These positive experiences by others provided a solid foundation for my feeling that the present drought could be reduced or completely ended through cloudbusting.

After reviewing climate conditions for Israel, it was determined that two attempts would be made to use the cloudbuster, first in November 1991, and second in February 1992. It was hoped that the cloudbuster would complement the natural tendencies towards rain that would take place at the onset of the wintertime rainy period. Based upon prior experiences with the cloudbuster in Greece and California, which have similar "Mediterranean" climate types (winter rainy season, summer dry), it was anticipated that successful cloudbusting in the latter half of November would produce a higher than normal quantity of December rainfall, with beneficial effects that might last into January 1992. The second operation in late February was timed to follow what we anticipated would be the end of any persisting effects from the November cloudbusting. Or, if the November operations were a total failure, February gave a second chance. As everything was being planned from offices in the USA, the actual dates of operations were determined months in advance of the arrival of the research team in Israel. Other than simple climate data and a few informal, and often contradictory, opinions of meteorologists given in newspapers, there were no certain long term forecasts for the region - the vast majority of long-term forecasts are, in any case, not particularly reliable. Several months before the onset of the winter rainy season, for example, one Israeli forecaster predicted a wetter-than-normal rainy season based upon dusts from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. However, this same volcano was being cited by forecasters in California, where we lived, to predict a drier-than-normal year. Other forecasters in Israel whom we met with privately were predicting another dry year.

Logistical planning for OROP Israel got underway as early as July 1991, when letters and memoranda were drafted and sent to various sponsors, volunteers and observers of the Israel experiments, outlining how the operations would proceed and the specific results which were anticipated; these are reproduced in the published Special Report.(8)




Atmospheric Conditions in Israel, as seen from an airplane and on the ground, immediately after our arrival on 12 November 1991. Heavy dor-haze obscures the atmosphere, blocking the entrance of rain-bearing air masses and storm systems.


The November 1991 Cloudbusting Operations in Israel:
From Drought to Heavy, Repetitive Rainstorms

According to our plans and specifications, a small but powerful cloudbuster was constructed by a private engineer and machine shop in Israel. It was operated manually, mounted on a truck during transportation, but removed and set on the ground during operations. Figure 1 is a photo of this cloudbuster, set up and operating on the shores of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). It was given the name Sabra, which is Hebrew for native of Israel. The atmosphere depicted in this photo is representative of the widespread hazy, dorish conditions we observed upon arrival in Israel, on the 12th of November 1991. The horizon is nearly 100% obscured, to the point that mountains on the other side of the lake, only a few kilometers away, can hardly be seen. On that day, Israeli television announced that Lake Kinneret was down to its lowest point in history, only 2 millimeters above the red line, due to drought and heavy water demands. In Figure 1, the low water level is made apparent by the position of the dock at the far right side of the photo.




Figure 1: Cloudbuster Sabra, at work on the West shore of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Tiberius, Northern Israel, on 17 November 1991, at the time of a severe 3-years long drought. Operations had been underway for around one hour at the time this photograph was taken. The view is to the East. The photo immediately below shows this same landscape from a slightly higher perspective, looking south. Both photos show a heavy dor layer and a low level of water in the lake. Compare these two photos to the ones which follow, taken several months after rains were restored to the region.


After our arrival, several days were required for making final preparations for the work, and also to check out the cloudbuster for mechanical problems. By the 15th of November, and prior to any work with the cloudbuster, the Israeli meteorological service announced the onset of an episode of Sharav or Hamsin winds, which blew from the interior deserts westward, towards the Mediterranean. This was an upsetting problem for us to encounter, as we knew from past experience that such desert winds would work against any increase in moisture and rains which the cloudbusting might bring. Indeed, we had specifically planned the first operations for late November with the expectation that, by that date, the desert atmosphere would have naturally moved south, as is the usual case in November. Given the Sharav, we anticipated a delayed response to the cloudbuster. By November 15th, the weather over Israel had developed a hardened, desert-like character, similar to more arid summertime conditions. While it was difficult for us to predict just how responsive the atmosphere would be to the cloudbuster, the presence of the Sharav suggested a delayed response, at best.

Starting late in the evening on the 15th of November, and periodically until November 24th, cloudbuster Sabra was moved and operated from one location in Israel to the next, from Kfar Blum in the north to Eilat in the south, according to the schedule given below. Additional cloudbusting was simultaneously undertaken by members of the Hellenic Orgonomic Association in Greece and on the Island of Cyprus, as coordinated by long distance telephone and directed by myself. The operational plan of action was ambitious and bold, but adequate to the task, and necessary given the severity of the crisis situation being confronted. Weather conditions in Israel and over the Mediterranean were constantly monitored for any signs of change in the weather situation, through a variety of methods:

1. The USA-based WeatherFax company provided timely weather maps, via long-distance fax;
2. The Israeli Meteorological Service at Bet Degan and the Rainfall Augmentation Branch at Ben Gurion Airport provided telephone updates on weather conditions, and on several occasions we visited the facilities to view the satellite images or obtain weather data;
3. We constantly monitored English language weather forecasts from various radio and television stations in the region, notably the BBC broadcasts from Cyprus.
4. Most importantly, through our own network of personal contacts in the region, in Israel, Greece, Crete and Cyprus, we could obtain on-the-spot descriptions of both prevailing weather and orgone-energetic conditions in the atmosphere.

Information gathered from these various sources was correlated on the weather map and integrated with our own observations, as made in the field during the cloudbuster operations. In this manner we were able to develop a reasonably precise and timely picture of then-current weather conditions - from both classical meteorological and orgone-energetic viewpoints - for the entire eastern Mediterranean region.



Figure at Left: Cloudbuster Sabra being set up for operations on the Jordan River, 15-16 November 1991. The author, James DeMeo and assistant Theirrie Cook, preparing equipment at a time when the Jordan River was at a very low stage over many years. Another photo of the Jordan is provided below, after the cloudbusting operations and several months of good rains, of this exact same spot showing it to be completely covered over with flowing water.


OROP ISRAEL, OPERATIONS TIMETABLE, 1991:

Nov. 12: Cloudbuster team arrives in Israel. Preparations get underway. Heavy Dor.
Nov. 13-14: Preparations continue. Cloudbuster mounted on rental truck. Sharav winds develop, dorish conditions increase.
Nov. 15: Cloudbuster trucked to Kfar Blum, in northeast Israel. OPERATIONS BEGIN, set up late PM on the Jordan River. Cloudbuster also set into operation on Crete, late PM. Winds respond, but dor infestation is thick.
Nov. 16: Work continues at Jordan River site, Kfar Blum. Dor lessening to west, continues thick to east. Additional small cloudbusters set up in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece. Orgone (jet) streams active over region.
Nov. 17: Cloudbuster moved from Jordan River site to Lake Kinneret, at Tiberius. Sharav decreasing. Dor significantly less to west. Rains over Greece, with new storms entering central Mediterranean. Cloudbusters in Greece are shut down.
Nov. 18: Operations ended in Tiberius with move to Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea coast. No work undertaken in Israel today; cannot find suitable draw site. Cloudbusting continues in Cyprus.
Nov. 19: Operations resume at noontime in Tel Aviv, at coast. Thick dorish "marine layer" is present. Fog, stratus and light drizzle by late PM. New fronts on weather map. Rains forecast.
Nov. 20: Move from Tel Aviv to Ein Geddi, on the Dead Sea. Set up by late PM. Heavy dor.
Nov. 21: Move from Dead Sea site south to Eilat, on Red Sea. Continuing dor busting. Cyprus work also continues. Significant rain fronts near Italy, slowly moving east.
Nov. 22: Continuing work at Eilat. Storm over Italy slows, is now a "cut-off" low pressure.
Nov. 23: Long drive back to Tel Aviv, set up on Mediterranean Sea. Rains now in Greece, but not Cyprus. Tremendous dor is being mobilized, pushing ahead of storms. All workers in Greece and Cyprus are overworked, dorized, despondent; operations are completely ended in those locations. Only Sabra continues operations in Israel. Set up only by late PM in Tel Aviv.
Nov. 24: Operations continue at Tel Aviv until 7:00 PM, when ALL OPERATIONS END. Satellite images indicate strong superimposition developing over eastern Mediterranean, as "cut-off" low migrates slowly eastward, towards Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel.
Nov. 25: Storm in Mediterranean still holding together, with rains in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus.
Nov. 26: More dor pushed into Israel, ahead of approaching storm. Meteorologists still do not forecast any significant rain, as they expect storm to deviate northward.




Cloudbuster Sabra set up and working at the Tel Aviv Marina, one of many locations in Israel where the apparatus was set into operations between 15-24 November 1991.


Rains began falling in Israel on November 27, as the storm arrived at the coast, and rains continued for the next week. Good to heavy rains also fell across Lebanon, Cyprus, and Turkey, ending only around December 7th. A 50-year rainfall record was broken in Israel. It is significant to note this was the very same storm which was previously observed as a Mediterranean weather front near Italy on November 21, and which developed into a "cut-off low" which moved east towards Greece on November 22. That storm even went "retrograde" (temporarily moved westward) before finally moving eastward again towards Crete and Israel. The storm's path was unusually far south as contrasted to the path of other storms throughout the drought period.








Satellite Image from 25 November 1991, showing a large storm system moving eastward in the Mediterranean Sea. This storm, which followed right on the heels of the cloudbusting operations, would push onshore across Israel two days later, bringing one of the heaviest rains on record, and with the most intensive rains of the Mediterranean region falling within Israel and Western Jordan.








This rainfall episode, of November 27 to December 7 is plotted on the Percentage of Normal Precipitation map given in Figure 2.(9) Israel, the West Bank territories, and northwest Jordan received the greatest portion of these rains, from 200 to 400 percent of normal. By December 7, some Israeli and Jordanian regions had received nearly 90% of the normal annual rainfall. The mountains in Turkey, Cyprus, Syria and Lebanon received unexpected heavy snows, and several rivers in the mountains of Cyprus were flowing with water for the first time in years.(9) It was, indeed, a major shift in weather conditions, from the previously droughty and stagnant conditions, to a wet and moving, highly animated atmosphere.




Figure 2: Percentage of Normal Precipitation Map, Eastern Mediterranean, Nov. 27 to Dec. 7, 1991, showing rainfall contours for the first major storm to enter Israel shortly after the onset of cloudbusting operations.(9) This exceptionally heavy rainfall episode began only 10 days after cloudbusting operations were initiated, and only a few days after those operations ended. The storm which brought these rains had developed in the western and central Mediterranean as a "cut-off low" on approximately Nov. 21-22, during the cloudbusting operations. It slowly moved eastward, intensifying as it approached the coast of Israel. Six additional episodes of moderate-to-heavy rainfall entered Israel after this storm, from mid-December through March of 1992, and these are identified on the graph below, in Figure 4.
After this major breakthrough of rains, a pulsatory pattern of rainfall was established in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, far beyond anything expected or previously observed by members of the cloudbusting team. A second storm passed through the Eastern Mediterranean, including Israel, after December 8th. By December 15, the level of Lake Kinneret was up 60 cm from the red line! Rains were also still progressing in Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Egypt. New storms pushed into the area with heavy snow after December 31st; Jerusalem received a record 16" of snow, while 24" fell in Amman Jordan. Additional storms pushed into Israel and across the entire Eastern Mediterranean through January and February 1992 as well, making the planned second phase of operations completely unnecessary.

While virtually all reservoirs, rivers and lakes of the region would fill to capacity, and the water shortages of the area would be completely wiped away within a few dramatic months, our research team had not anticipated the strength of the storms which subsequently developed in the eastern Mediterranean, nor the exceptional, even historical quantities of rainfall and snow which fell across the area. Indeed, in my 15+ years of working with the cloudbuster in drought and desert regions on three continents, I had never before witnessed such a powerful response to cloudbusting - the impression gained was of the sudden release of an incredible accumulated atmospheric tension, with an associated shift of climate back towards what probably existed prior to the original desertification of the Saharasian region several thousand years ago.




The Jordan River, near Kfar Blum in Northern Israel, at high flow. Only a few months earlier, our cloudbuster had been operating at a location close to the center of these photos, at a spot now under several meters of flowing water.





The local populations in most cases celebrated the arrival of those storms, and endured the inconveniences and disruptions of daily life due to heavy rains without complaint; the water was, after all, a badly-needed resource. In some cases, however, people were not well prepared for the magnitude of the temporary weather changes. For example, drainage systems in some cities had been poorly maintained, and were overgrown with brush, while in others, officials had ignored the prior warnings of hydrologists and urban planners, allowing people to build homes in low-lying, flood-prone areas. When the heavy rains came, traffic often came to a stand-still for hours. Previously bone-dry river beds and conduits filled quickly, and overflowed onto major roads. In a few cases, where homes and businesses had been irresponsibly constructed down in dry river beds, water collected and sometimes flooded such structures. A few deaths also occurred on the highways due to the fatal combination of rain-slick streets and highway speeding, or when people attempted to drive their cars through rain-swollen streams. For the general period of rains, however, traffic fatalities declined in a net manner, as most people slowed down, and were possibly more alert due to alleviation of prior suffocating dorish conditions.(10) Additional difficulties also occurred in a few areas when power lines were knocked down by heavy winds or accumulated snow, leaving many persons without power, sometimes for days.

One major surprise was the high level of agricultural productivity which developed after the storms. From early newspaper reports, and from our own observations made later in February, flooded farm fields could be seen everywhere, and we anticipated a temporary devastation to the agricultural economy. However, the excess water had a net beneficial effect upon agriculture in the region. Aside from providing for secure irrigation water supplies in lakes and reservoirs, the excess water flushed away years of accumulated soil salts, replenished subsoil moisture supplies, greened pasturelands, and benefited many crops which had just begun to sprout in the fields. Orchards which had been previously abandoned due to inadequate rains or salinized irrigation waters, and which had died back to leafless twigs and barren stumps, in some cases began to bloom again with unexpected vigor and fruit production. While some farm animals, chickens and fruit trees were lost to episodes of freezing conditions, the abundance of fruits and vegetables was so great only a few months later that prices in the Israeli markets actually declined by 14.3%, producing a 23-year record drop of -0.4% in the cost-of-living statistics.(11) This price decrease was not due to cheaper agricultural imports, as Israel is a net exporter of fruits and vegetables in the region. However, I do not wish to paint a completely rosy face on these weather changes. In other areas, such as Egypt, Turkey, and Lebanon, greater difficulties were experienced from the winter storms. There was, additionally, a complicating factor in the analysis of these strong storms: a very ambitious Israeli government cloudseeding program, employing seeding aircraft and several dozen ground-based seeding generators, was constantly underway during every single storm cycle, even during the heaviest of downpours and flooding. It was ended only in late February, after widespread public protest. While the cloudseeding was not a factor in bringing about the end to drought in the eastern Mediterranean (they were seeding also during drought years), it did appear to contribute significantly to the flooding problems, once the cloudbusting had eliminated the energetic barrier to the Mediterranean storms. These problems, as well as operational details and characteristics of the drought-breaking storms, have been more fully discussed in the Special Report.(8)

We returned to Israel during the first half of February 1992, the time of the fifth major pulse of rainfall - the longest and most sustained to occur - after the cloudbusting operations. No additional cloudbusting was undertaken in Israel at that time, for the reason of water abundance, as discussed above. However, a short cloudbusting operation was undertaken during our February visit to slow down and reduce the influx of moisture and energy streaming into the eastern Mediterranean. This operation was performed at my request and direction by our associates and helpers in Greece, and it was successful in temporarily diminishing the rains.

We continued to observe and document the ground-level changes first hand, traveling essentially the same route previously covered during the November 1991 cloudbusting operations, except that in a few cases excess water on the roads closed some areas to routine travel. We even observed some moderate rains in the area around the Dead Sea, and during our visit, snow was observed to blanket parts of the Negev as far south as the hills overlooking Eilat, which is deep within the Sahara. Moreover, several new modest-sized lakes had appeared on the Israeli countryside, having formed from pooling rains in areas which had not received so much water in centuries. These latter phenomena were almost historically unique, we were told. Besides the spectacle of the rains and storms themselves, the most incredible and remarkable two aspects we observed on this February trip were:

1) The complete absence of any hazy, dorish qualities to the atmosphere. The air was not only cool and crisp to breathe and walk in, but it was absolutely transparent, allowing unrivaled views of surrounding snow-capped mountains and hills. Figure 3, for example, is a photograph taken in early February 1992, from the same cloudbusting site on Lake Kinneret as given in Figure 1. The difference in the quality of the atmosphere, its greater transparency and crispness, as well as the increased height of water in the lake are immediately apparent, as are the mountains on the other side of the Lake, which could hardly be seen the previous November.




Figure 3: Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) under sparkling and transparent atmospheric conditions in early February 1992, after several months of good rain. Notice the clearly-observable mountains in the background, the sea birds, the moving environmental conditions, and the increased height of the water level as compared to the conditions in late November, seen in Figure 1. Several additional photos of the Lake after the operations are given below.


2) The vegetation-barren areas of the Negev Desert, and those regions surrounding the Dead Sea, were in the process of greening up with grasses and blooming with flowers. In particular, formerly dry wadis (river beds) in the desert areas had greened up and bloomed significantly, with new streams and waterfalls on the landscape. These were extraordinary observations, quite rare, and most beautiful to behold (Figure 5). By March 1992, the blooming of flowers and grasses in the formerly-barren areas of the desert were so spectacular that special bus expeditions were being organized by Israeli travel bureaus, so that people could see the highly unusual phenomenon for themselves.

By the time we left Israel on February 12th, the rains had eased up, to everyone's relief. Only one more pulse of rain came into the region after our departure, in late February. By the first of March a total of six major pulses of rainfall, each from five to ten days in duration, had passed through the eastern Mediterranean. Through January and February, with the dramatically increased rainfall and surface water runoff, the level of Lake Kinneret continued to rise dramatically. The precious excess water was being pumped from the Lake into previously depleted groundwater aquifers using every available pump. On February 9th, the Deganya Dam, which controls water flowing from Lake Kinneret south towards the Dead Sea, was opened, allowing even more water to drain away. In spite of the pumping and opening of the dam, by the end of March, Lake Kinneret was brim full. This raised a fear of flooding to the coastal cities around the lake, such as the resort town of Tiberius, and so an unprecedented decision was made to keep the Deganya Dam open, allowing even more water to flow into the Dead Sea. It was originally believed that the dam would be open only for a few days, but the waters continued to rise so rapidly that the dam remained open for six full weeks, the longest opening period on record. So precious was the water flowing into the lake that planners had delayed the decision to open the dam. Even a special net placed across the opening of the dam, to keep the Lake's fish population from being swept downstream, was removed to allow a more rapid outflow. The dam was finally shut in late March, after a record 6 weeks opening, but pumping out of the lake into groundwater aquifers continued. Flooding of coastal towns did not occur. By May and June, the lake was still receiving such great quantities of surface runoff from surrounding areas, that it was still close to its maximum level. It had proved to be the wettest winter rainy season ever recorded, since record-keeping began at the turn of the century.(12) Figure 4 presents a graph of daily precipitation values for 13 measuring stations in Israel.(13) The period of the November 1991 cloudbusting operations to bring rain and end drought are marked with arrows.




Figure 4: Daily Precipitation Values, Average for 13 Stations in Israel, for the period from 1 October 1991 to 31 March 1992. The periods of cloudbusting operations are marked with arrows, and roughly six major pulses of rainfall can be identified on the graph. Only the first of these rainfall episodes, that of Nov. 27 to Dec. 7, is plotted on the map in Figure 2, above.(13)
Weather over the eastern Mediterranean remained several degrees cooler than the climatological average for the spring and summer months of 1992, and rare late spring and summertime rains swept parts of the region. The following quotations underscore the highly unusual nature of these wintertime rains. Figure 5 shows the highly unusual desert-greening which took place in the harsh environment surrounding the Dead Sea.


Feb. 15: News Report:"Its official. The current and far-from-over winter is the wettest in a century in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where there hasn't been so much rain since records were first kept in 1904." 75 cm of snow on Mt. Hermon, the heaviest snowfall in 140 years. "In the Golan Heights, snow is considered a blessing... Mt. Hermon is composed of eroded limestone, which absorbs water into its many crevices. The melting snow trickles down into multi-year reservoirs, which feed the headwaters of the Jordan river, providing the only source of water to the Kinneret during the summer."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 15 Feb. 92, p.11)
April 11: News Report: "The hills are alive again. The winter's rains transformed the face of the Judean Desert... Never in all their winters had they seen their familiar pasture so transformed. From the craggy heights where it starts just east of the Judean Hills to the clifftops overlooking the Dead Sea, the desert was carpeted with flowers and grasses. Asher, a veteran guide for the Metzoke Dragot desert tour company, had never seen anything like it either. 'This winter has been unlike any other'."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 11 April 92)

June 17: News Report:"Meanwhile, the water level in the Kinneret is remaining at virtually its maximum mark. This is the first time since the national water carrier was opened in 1964 that anybody can remember such a high water level in the Kinneret in the middle of June. The lake yesterday stood at 208.91 meters below sea level, just one centimeter from its maximum high-water mark."
(Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., June 17-18, 1992)

"As a result of the unusually wet winter, we have had a glorious spring with lush growth everywhere and significant reserves of water both above ground and underground. The Jordan is still extraordinarily high for this time of the year."
(Personal Communication, P. Rimon, Kfar Blum, 19 May 92)

"It's the nicest spring ever in Israel. Flowers are all over the Negev, and people go to look and can't believe it!"
(Personal Communication, L. Axelrod, Tel Aviv, May 92)



Figure 5: Greening of desert landscapes, in formerly barren, rocky regions; a sea of wildflowers on the edge of the Dead Sea, around 10 February 1992.


POSTSCRIPT, January 1993. News reports from Israel indicate the subsequent winter rainy season, of 1992-1993, is also an exceptionally wet one for the entire eastern Mediterranean, even though no additional cloudbusting has been undertaken. The drought did not return, and appears to be ended completely for the foreseeable future.

Citations:

1. Williams, D.: "Taking a Stroll on the Parched Sea of Galilee", New York Times, 15 Jan. 1991.

2. Goell, Y.: "Mideast Faces Withdrawal Symptoms, Water Shortage", Jerusalem Post, International Edition, 5 Nov.1991; Anon. Editorial, "Peace Talks at Water Level", Jerusalem Post, International Edition, 2 Sept. 1991; also as quoted from CNN television report on water issues in the Middle East, Summer 1991.

3. Personal communications with several residents of Cyprus.

4. Rosen, R.: "Report on Cloudbusting Operations and Rain Fall", unpublished report; anon. "News and Comment: Weather Control in Israel", Creative Process, III (1):2, 1963; Greenfield, J.: "Between orgonomy and Jewishness", Energy and Character, 7(3):58-59, 1976; Gassner, M.: "Orgonomy in Israel: Yesterday and Today", Offshoots of Orgonomy, 10:53-57, Spring 1985.

5. Blasband, R.: "Summary Report of Orgonomic Weather Control Operations in Israel, 1983", unpublished report.

6. See the citation list at the end of this document, and the author index for listings in Bibliography on Orgone Biophysics, Natural Energy Works, PO Box 864, El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA, 1986.

7. Personal communication, letter from Gad Assaf to James DeMeo, 12 Feb. 1979.

8. DeMeo, J.: OROP Israel 1991-1992: A Cloudbusting Experiment to Restore Wintertime Rains to Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean During an Extended Period of Drought, Special Report, Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory, PO Box 1395, El Cerrito, CA, 94530 USA, 1992.

9. Global Climate Highlights Feature Map, Weekly Climate Bulletin, USDOC/NOAA, Washington, D.C., for week ending 7 Dec. 1991.

10. Jerusalem Report, 26 December 1991.

11. Jerusalem Post, 27 June 1992, p.21.

12. Jerusalem Post Int. Ed., 15 Feb. 92, p.11.

13. Data from Agroclimatological Summary, Bet Dagan Climate Center, Israel, weekly reports dated October 1991 through March 1992. The 13 weather stations were: Acre Farm, Ein Ha Haresh, Bet Dagan, Negba, Dorot, Besar Farm, Matityahu Farm, Kibbutz Ramat-David, Netiv Ha Lamed Hey, Beersheva, Kefar Blum, Massada, and Tirat Zvi.