WHO'LL START THE RAIN?

RAINMAKER FOUNDER AND CEO AUGUSTUS DORICKO WANTS TO HELP DROUGHT-PRONE AREAS BY USING DRONES TO NUDGE CLOUDS INTO PRODUCING SNOW AND RAIN. HE'S GENERATING A STORM OF CONTROVERSY IN THE PROCESS.

- BY AINSLEY HARRIS

AUGUSTUS DORICKO, FOUNDER AND CEO OF CLOUD-seeding startup Rainmaker, surveys the sky from a sunbaked hillside 5 miles from Utah's Great Salt Lake. On this balmy Sunday afternoon in late September, the lake is calm, but its serenity belies a potentially catastrophic problem: The Great Salt Lake is shrinking—and at risk of disappearing altogether. At its peak 40 years ago, the lake covered 2,300 square miles; today, more than 800 square miles of lake bed are exposed. As more of the lake dries, scientists warn that dust storms made up of toxic heavy metals could plague the Salt Lake Valley, home to 1.2 million people, and beyond.

Rainmaker's futuristic technology could solve the state's water woes by harnessing nature. The startup flies drones into the troposphere, where they probe for precipitation-friendly conditions before releasing silver iodide particles that “seed” rain and snow. The weather today is too idyllic for umbrellas. But Doricko's mind, as usual, is in the clouds. “There’s hella-supercooled liquid water today between six and nine thousand feet,” he says. “So basically, we gotta start blasting.”

With just weeks to go before the start of prime cloud-seeding season—silver iodide is more effective in colder temperatures, where it can produce snow—a dozen Rainmaker drone operator trainees have assembled on this pasture to log flight time before relocating to the Bear River Basin, which feeds the lake. As they compare notes, Doricko, in cowboy boots, winds his way between dried cow dung and yellow rabbitbrush to reach his startup's signature innovation, resting in the dirt: a custom-built, 3-foot-by-3-foot quadcopter drone dubbed Elijah.