Rainmaking refers to the act of attempting to artificially induce or increase precipitation, usually to stave off drought. In Meteorology, precipitation (also known as one class of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply It takes two basic forms:
- In the US, rainmaking was attempted by traveling showmen. It was practiced in the old west but may have reached a peak during the dust bowl/drought of the American West and Midwest in the 1930's. The Dust Bowl, or the dirty thirties, was a period of severe Dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and The practice was depicted in the 1956 film The Rainmaker. The Rainmaker is a 1956 film directed by Joseph Anthony and adapted by N The attempt to bring rain directly has waned with development of the science of meteorology, the advent of laws against fraud and increased communication technology. Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary However many Americans, well-educated and not, still attempt to bring rain during droughts through prayer, a phenomenon particularly common in US farming regions.
- In other societies, rain dances and other rituals have similarly been attempted supernaturally to increase rainfall. A rain dance is a Ceremonial dance that is performed in order to invoke rain and to ensure the protection of the harvest The term supernatural or supranatural ( Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature" pertains to entities events Though there is no scientific basis for the belief that this worked, the rituals persist, with the Romanian ceremony known as paparuda - and many others across the world - continuing to the present day. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Paparuda is a Romanian rain ritual, probably of pagan origin performed in the spring and in times of severe drought These rituals in America and beyond differ greatly in their specifics, but share a common concern with bringing rain through ritual and/or spiritual means.
- Since the 1940s, cloud seeding has been used to change the structure of clouds by dispersing substances into the air, potentially increasing or altering rainfall. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be Cloud seeding, a form of weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from Clouds by dispersing substances
- Operation Popeye was a US military rainmaking operation to increase rains over Vietnam during the Vietnam War in order to slow Vietnamese military truck activity in the region. Operation Popeye (Project Popeye/Motorpool/Intermediary-Compatriot was a US military Cloud seeding operation (running from March 20, 1967 until July
See also: cloud-buster. A Cloudbuster is a device developed by Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich as a rainmaker
The term is also used metaphorically to describe the process of bringing new clients into a professional practice such as law, architecture or consulting.
ADDITIONAL READINGS
Sanders, Todd 2008. Beyond Bodies: Rainmaking and Sense Making in Tanzania. Toronto, University of Toronto Press
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