--- title: "Scientists Propose Electrocuting Clouds to Make it Rain" description: "Aa team of researchers from the University of Reading in the UK found that it's possible to encourage rain by supercharging clouds with electricity." date: "2022-02-10" modified: "2022-02-10" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/electrocuting-clouds" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "meteorology" - "rain" - "weather control" --- # Scientists Propose Electrocuting Clouds to Make it Rain ![Aa team of researchers from the University of Reading in the UK found that it's possible to encourage rain by supercharging clouds with electricity.]() *\Image: Getty Images/Futurism\* Scientists may be one step closer to controlling the weather — this time by studying the electricity inside of raindrops. In a new study funded by the United Arab Emirates and [published in the journal *Proceedings on the Royal Society A*](), a team of researchers from the University of Reading in the UK found that it's possible to encourage the formation of raindrops by supercharging clouds with electricity. Clouds are full of water vapor, but rain only occurs when this vapor condenses into heavier droplets. To form into droplets heavy enough to create rain, the droplets require a sufficient opposite charge to bond to each other, positive to negative, and vice versa. This new Reading research, however, suggests that isn't always a prerequisite for rain droplets to form. If a charge is greater in one droplet — even if they have the same charge — they'll still bond to each other. The charges will then "migrate" from one to another, the paper claims, "which leads to an attractive force which can dominate if the drops are close to each other." The amount of charge in a given water drop, the paper continues, can also change when it acquires ions from a nearby electric field. While applying electric fields to clouds would only make rain droplets five percent more likely to stick together, according to the team, the effect could still be great enough to stimulate or suppress rain. As [*The Guardian* notes in its write-up]() of the study, the United Arab Emirates have funded the team of scientists' research [since at least 2017]() because the wealthy desert confederation happens to be an extremely dry place. Last year, Harrison, Ambaum, and their colleagues [piloted "rain drones" near Dubai]() to see if they could "cajole" rain out of the skies by releasing positive or negative ions into the clouds. While the technology takes its foundations from the type of "[cloud seeding]()" experiments that [date back to the 1950s](), the addition of electricity, the team hopes, will boost the otherwise mixed results of previous experiments. The same group of researchers have also suggested that [33-foot-tall rain towers]() may provide a more permanent way to electrify clouds. China, meanwhile, has undertaken its own massive [cloud-seeding endeavors]() to try to [control the weather]() as it hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The concept of electrocuting clouds to make it rain may seem far fetched, but given the very real [concerns over droughts]() and [water shortages](), it doesn't seem quite as outlandish as it once might have. **READ MORE:** [Have we finally found the recipe for making rain?]() \[*The Guardian*\] **More climate hacks:** *[Scientists Reveal Plan to Cool the World Through Geoengineering]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()