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Why Salt Lake City is paying for snow this winter

Posted at 10:06 PM, Feb 20, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-21 00:06:46-05

BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON, Utah — There's been a lot of snow lately, but there will probably be even more — because Salt Lake City is paying to give Mother Nature a boost.

It's called "cloud seeding" — shooting tiny particles up in the air, hoping to produce more snow in the mountains.

The reason? Not for better skiing or snowboarding — but to build water resources.

Larger burners are used to vaporize silver iodide and send it up into the clouds. The particles that fly up from the flame form the center of an ice crystal, which then grows into a snowflake and, hopefully, falls back to the earth in Utah's mountains.

Snow is an important resource when it comes to Utah's water use throughout the rest of the year.

Learn more about how cloud seeding works and why Salt Lake City is paying for it this winter by watching the story above.