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 began on March 15th, 2012!  March did not offer any seeding flights to the area, but three reconnaissance flights did place as a few systems affected the area.  April yielded a more opportunities near the beginning of the month but the latter half of the month was dominated by high pressure and no rain chances.

Outlook (5-2 through 5-5):

A typical spring regime is set up over southwest Texas with a weak trough located over western Texas into northern Mexico.  This pattern allows shortwaves to move across the trough, across the Rio Grande River.  These shortwaves interact with orographics along the Mexican mountains, which gives rise to robust convection along the higher terrain.  Each evening, there is a slight chance this convection could move into the western target area.  The best chance during this period will be on Thursday evening for the western target area.  Stayed tuned and check out the radar page to see the latest activity to affect the target area.  High pressure builds into the area by the weekend, allowing temperatures to build and rain chances to end, even across the higher terrain of Mexico.