Southern Ogalalla

The Southern Ogallala program was formed in 2002 when the Board of Directors of Sandy Land Underground Water Conservation District, South Plains Underground Water Conservation District, and the Llano Estacado Underground Water Conservation District decided to fund a weather modification program. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) issued a permit authorizing the SOAR program to conduct rainfall enhancement operations in Yoakum County, Terry County and Gaines County in Texas. Additionally, the SOAR program has collaborated with the State of New Mexico since the spring of 2002 in providing a weather modification program in the plains of southeastern New Mexico. The Interstate Stream Commission (ISC) State of New Mexico has monitored cloud seeding operations in parts of Roosevelt and Lea Counties within a 90-mile radius of the SOAR field facility in Plains, Texas. The Southern Ogallala program covers 5.92 million acres of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico and is referred to as the Southern Ogallala target area. SOAR ingests NEXRAD data from the Midland and Lubbock radars sites. These NEXRAD sites cover the SOAR target area. The Southern Ogallala weather modification program is a non-randomized operational program for the primary purpose of increasing rainfall. Hail suppression is not an objective of the program.