Germany - 1930's onwards - Weather Modification
#7 - A summary of German weather modification activity.
Germany
'Deutschland' is one of the earliest countries on Earth to start modifying its weather. Generally the target area covered has always been launched out of Rosenheim and Rems-Murr. Rosenheim is a city in Bavaria, in the south-east region of Germany. Rems-Murr is a Landkreis in the middle of Baden-Württemberg, the south-west of Germany. It is situated just east of Stuttgart. Rosenheim is about 40km/25 miles, south-east of Munich. Both area's are about 200km/125 miles apart and essentially that means the area of southern Germany is covered. Frankfurt is about 150km/90 miles away from the target area's. The target area combines with the Austrian and Swiss target areas which also combine with the Italian and south-eastern France target area's. These area's are commonly known for grape growing / wine production. Weather modification in the form of Hail Suppression programmes is carried out to 'protect' grapes from hail damage. The locations mentioned here are important to remember due to the floods, property damage and loss of life that have occurred during the weather modification operations.
1930's
'Hagelabwehr' / 'Hail Defence' was first started in Rosenheim, Germany in the 1930's. Classed as experimentation, Silver Iodide was dispersed via basic, small rockets that were launched from the ground to target clouds.
1948 - 1952
In 1979, the Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Weather Service) published a paper on 100 years of weather service in Bayern (1878-1978). It is stated that hail suppression operations were active between 1948 and 1952. There is a table shown next to the statement giving operational details dating from 1948 through to 1963 for the Tessin area which is near Rostok in the coastal north-east of Germany and from 1976 through to 1982 in the Zentral-Schweiz (Central Swiss) area. The first part, 1948-53, over Tessin utilised rocket dispersed TNT which is classed as an older method of hail suppression, using sound waves to disrupt hail stone formation. The period from 1953 through to 1982 over both Tessin, Germany and Central Switzerland used Silver Iodide. Tessin used ground based generators and rockets were used for dispersal in Central Switzerland.
1958 - 1968
In 1958 the Rosenheim district administrator 'George Knott' initiated a 10 year trial that dispersed Silver Iodide into clouds via small rockets and also from ground generators. This was the first time data was scientifically analysed and the project was considered a success.
1970's
Legislation changes to the 'Explosives Act' meant that ground based generators could no longer be utilised and cloud seeding via aircraft was introduced as the primary means to modify German weather using Silver Iodide in the Rosenheim, Miesbach and Traunstein area's. The airplane dispersal generators were designed by 'Hermann Selbertinger' who was a flight engineer from Rosenheim.
There is a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report from 2006 where participant countries reported their weather modification activities. Hail Suppression, 'Hagelabwehrforschung' Rosenheim, it's stated, was operational from 1975.
A United States Air Weather Service (AWS) technical report (244) published for the financial year of 1971 and authored by Capt. L.D. Mondenhall, Capt. J.C. Lease, Lt. R.I. Sax and H.S. Appleman, titled the "Fourth Annual Survey Report on the Air Weather Service, Weather Modification Program" states that "In FY 1971, AWS carried out a total of 6 projects. 4 to dissipate supercooled fog, 1 to dissipate warm fog and 1 to increase precipitation. 'Cold-Wand' was a ground-based project at Fairchild AFB, Washington, USA and 'Cold-Flake' was a similar project initiated at Hahn AB, Germany. The remaining projects were US based. 'Cold-Flake' used ground based generators at Hahn AB which dispersed Liquid Propane."
The propane method is currently, in 2024, resurfacing with both the USA and Iran claiming to of invented the method recently. There are more details on that in recent News summaries published on this substack.
1980's
According to the WMO 2006 weather modification report as responded to by the Deutscher Wetterdienst, the (Hail Suppression) Hagelabweh Landkreis Rems-Murr project was operational from 1981. Rems Murr has a compensation claim form for damages caused by weather modification activities.
In 1982 new aircraft were added to the Rosenheim area's operation with the dispersal mechanism placed under the wings which released a mixture of ignited Silver Iodide and Acetone. The generators were controlled manually by the pilot. They had personal responsibility for switching the dispersal units on/off and ultimate responsibility for modifying German weather systems.
1990's
In 1993 the Deutscher Wetterdienst published a meteorological report containing an article written by A. Waldvogel titled "Niederschlagsbeeinflussung am Beispiel der Hagelbekampfung" (Influencing precipitation using the example of hail control).
2007
The Rosenheim University, research project, 'ROBERT', provided data in assistance to the weather modification activities. From 2010 the project continued under the name of RO-BERTA.
~ 2010
The aircraft generator technology used in Rosenheim, which were Croatian (by KRONOS) designed and built, were seen as deficient after 10 years of use due to observations of increased failures and maintenance needs as well as the manufacturer being too far away to provide any kind of reasonable support levels.
The newest generators were designed and built by the 'Krichbaumer' company in
co-operation with the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences. Previous issue's were solved by installing a fully electronic control system that simplified the pilot input requirements.
2016
In September 2016, MENAFN and the Emirates News Agency published an article titled "UAE rain-enhancement programme delegates visit leading European institutions"
The delegation visited Italy, Belgium and Germany. In Germany the rain-enhancement team visited Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. The team also interacted with 15 government entities, universities and research facilities across Italy, Belgium and Germany.
2021
Climate Modification - The ICOFSRM, International Conference on Ocean Fertilisation and Solar Radiation Management (SRM) was held in May 2021 in Berlin.
Weather Modification - The 100% of weather modification works out approximately like this > 95% of the planned activity operates and works out as planned with the desired outcome. 3% of the planned activity does not yield responses. 2% of the planned activities creates extreme weather events that are uncontrollable and cause devastation including loss of life.
On the 15th of July 2021 news started breaking about a torrential rain storm that was hitting in south-western Germany. Within hours, dozens were feared to of lost their lives. Final figures on fatalities came in at around 300 as well as serious infrastructure and property damage which included area's across southern Holland and Belgium.
Weather Modification flight logs for Rems-Murr-Kreis show flights were being carried out weekly and more, up to the early part of July. Weather modification flights were also carried out during the storm on the 15th. Flight PH-PAZ with the pilot 'Michael Strecker' flew at 16:00 hrs and switched the Silver Iodide generators on at 17:00 hrs and they were 'on' at 17:23 hrs. Pilot 'Jochen Goller' flew flight number D-EWGV and had the weather modification generators operating between 17.10 hrs and 18:30 hrs. 'Strecker's second flight took off at 18:00 hrs and the generators were switched on 10 minutes later. The dispersal of Silver Iodide continued until 19:00 hrs, approximately 15 minutes before landing.
Carrying out hail suppression methods, which are more commonly used for rain enhancement, when people are dying in floods around 200-250km away is not normal.
Rosenheim's activities are a bit more harder to find out about for the 15th of July. After being asked for flight/operation details the Head of weather modification operations at 'Rosenheim Hail Suppression' replied via email on the 26th of July, that operations had taken place in June and July and they were extremely successful. "in June and July, we had an above-average number of and sometimes very heavy missions this year." ("Insbesondere im Juni und Juli hatten wir in diesem Jahr überdurchschnittlich viele und zum Teil sehr heftige Einsätze.") 'Heavy missions' tells you everything you need to know.
Rems-Murr were again carrying out weather modification operations on the 24th of July.
2023
In 2023, south-west Germany suffered a similar fate, on the 17th of August. This time no-one lost their life and 'climate change' was blamed for the extreme weather event which caused cancellations at Frankfurt airport, submerged vehicles and made some streets only passable using boats. Weather Modification flights were carried out on the 14th of August by the Rems-Murr operators. Pilot's 'M. Strecker and M. Frohlich' flew (D-GELI and D-GBRS) for a couple of hours in the afternoon with the weather modification generators on. 'Strecker' also flew on the 16th of August in the late afternoon and the generators were on. 'Frohlich' flew on the 17th, with the generators on, in the afternoon. Flights continued on the 24th of August.
Source
1930's - 1958 to 1968 - 1970's - 1982 - 2007 - Rosenheim
https://www.hagelabwehr-rosenheim.de/geschichtliches.php
1948 - 1952 > scroll down to 1979
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/germany.html
1990's > scroll down to 1993
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/germany.html
~2010
https://www.hagelabwehr-rosenheim.de/aktuelles.php?id=6
1971 - Hahn Air Base
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0743288.pdf
WMO 2006 report > scroll down to '2006'
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/germany.html
2016
Rems-Murr weather modification damage insurance claim form
https://www.rems-murr-kreis.de/bauen-umwelt-und-verkehr/hagelabwehr
2021
Floods
https://www.rems-murr-kreis.de/bauen-umwelt-und-verkehr/hagelabwehr
https://antiweathermodification.weebly.com/germany.html
2023
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/17/heavy-rain-causes-flight-cancellations-floods-in-germany
https://www.rems-murr-kreis.de/bauen-umwelt-und-verkehr/hagelabwehr
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