Welcome to the Southwest Texas Rain Enhancement website!

The Southwest Texas Rain Enhancement (SWTREA) is a weather modification project located in Southwest Texas and has been operating since 1999. It is one of five of its kind operating in the state of Texas. Weather modification operations occur in the target area from March 15th to November 15th.  Additionally, Uvalde County is operated by the SWTREA for the Edward Aquifer Authority (EAA) during the months of May through September. A project map can be found here, where the target area is outlined in yellow. The project operates 24 hours a day and conducts both rain enhancement and hail suppression activities.  Look around the site and learn more about our project and weather modification in general!

The 2012 season has been relatively busy thus far!  June and July yielded about average flight activity, with a number of rain enhancement operations occurring through mid July.  Very wet periods have occurring thus far in 2012 but they have been interspersed by very dry periods.  This pattern will likely continue through the rest of the summer.  ENSO neutral conditions are in place currently meaning that neither a La Nina or El Nino is occurring in the equatorial Pacific.  However, the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) predicts that by early August into September an El Nino should occur and last through at least the end of 2012.  This is good news for the winter months, but during the summer it will likely translate into a below average Atlantic Basin hurricane season. 

Drought continues to plague most of Texas with some relief over south Texas due to beneficial rains over the past several weeks.  Check out the latest drought monitor at the following link:  http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu

Outlook (7/31 through 8/6):

A large area of high pressure will remain in control of the weather pattern for most of the southern Plains, including Texas.  This area of high pressure will move very little through Friday, 8/3.  By the weekend, expect the high to slightly weaken over the area.  This will translate into somewhat lower daytime highs and moisture return to begin from the Gulf of Mexico. By early next week, it looks like the high will weaken and moisture will be adequate enough for showers and thunderstorms to from along the daily seabreeze boundary.  Coastal areas will see the most activity with less activity occurring further to the west and north of these areas.  Beyond Tuesday, it looks as though the ridge may re-strengthen back over south Texas, allowing temperatures to once again build and rain chances to vanish from the forecast.