Which Texas counties have implemented cloud seeding programs since 2020?
Executive summary
Cloud‑seeding projects in Texas have continued into the 2020s across multiple, long‑standing regional programs; publicly available state and local reports identify active target areas in the Panhandle, Trans‑Pecos, Rolling Plains, West Texas (including Tom Green County), and South/Central Texas (Edwards Aquifer / South Texas Weather Modification Association) that encompass specific counties named by local districts and the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. The Panhandle — a defined footprint of counties running through 2020s operations
The Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District’s precipitation‑enhancement program, documented as operating into the 2020s, lists a target area that includes Carson, Gray, Wheeler, Armstrong, Donley, Roberts and portions of Hemphill, Potter and Hutchinson counties and is described on the district’s site and in state Comptroller summaries as an active cloud‑seeding project aimed at augmenting Ogallala recharge [1] [2] [6].
2. Trans‑Pecos and West of the Pecos — long‑running programs and named counties
The weather-modification-association">Trans Pecos Weather Modification Association (TPWMA) has seeded west of the Pecos River since 2003 and its target area consists of political subdivisions including Culberson, Loving, Pecos, Reeves and Ward counties — counties cited repeatedly in TDLR and Comptroller materials as constituents of an active program [3] [2] [7].
3. Rolling Plains and West Texas — counties added and campaigns measured through 2020
The Rolling Plains Water Enhancement Project, originally a 3.5‑million‑acre target area and expanded west and southwest since 2015, now explicitly lists Knox, Baylor, Haskell, Scurry, Fisher, Jones, Mitchell and Nolan counties as part of its sponsored cloud‑seeding coverage [3]. Separately, research evaluating seeding over Tom Green County records campaigns through 2020 and documents measurable seeding activity in San Angelo and Tom Green County between 2015 and 2020 [4].
4. South/Central Texas (Edwards Aquifer / South Texas Weather Modification Association) — county contracts and membership
The Edwards Aquifer Authority contracts for seeding services in Bandera, Bexar and Medina counties via the South Texas Weather Modification Association (STWMA), and STWMA and its member districts and supporters (including Evergreen Underground Water Conservation District) extend operations or contracts that involve Atascosa, Frio, Karnes and Wilson counties; Uvalde County is also cited in more recent reporting on STWMA outcomes [2] [5] [8].
5. What "implemented since 2020" means and limits of the public record
The sources consistently show these county lists as components of target areas for ongoing regional programs; they do not always publish flight‑by‑flight logs in the public pages cited here, and many projects are long‑standing programs that continued operations into and after 2020 rather than brand‑new programs launched that year [2] [9]. TDLR issues the permits and maintains summaries of weather‑modification operations, which is why county membership in a program’s target area is the best publicly available proxy for “implemented” in the absence of per‑flight records [2] [9].
6. Alternative views, controversy and why county lists matter
Advocates and program meteorologists frame these county lists as necessary geographic target areas for drought mitigation and groundwater recharge and point to measured increases in precipitation in studies and program reports (for example Tom Green County analyses and PGCD estimates) [4] [1], while critics and some news coverage have highlighted the difficulty of attributing rainfall changes conclusively to seeding and warned about misinformation when seeding coincides with extreme events; the state has tools to suspend or review operations amid controversy, and TDLR retains permitting oversight [4] [7] [9]. Public documents therefore enumerate counties where programs operate (Panhandle counties: Carson, Gray, Wheeler, Armstrong, Donley, Roberts and portions of Hemphill, Potter, Hutchinson; Trans‑Pecos: Culberson, Loving, Pecos, Reeves, Ward; Rolling Plains: Knox, Baylor, Haskell, Scurry, Fisher, Jones, Mitchell, Nolan; West Texas/Tom Green; STWMA/Edwards Aquifer: Bandera, Bexar, Medina and affiliated South Texas counties including Uvalde, Atascosa, Frio, Karnes, Wilson) as the currently identified locations with active or recent cloud‑seeding operations as reflected in the cited sources [1] [3] [4] [2] [5].