Authors:

Pamela Lynn

Barbara Haney

"I had a conversation with GROK about this. It was a very long conversation and very interesting.  We are going to have to fight this at a local level as long as a state level." 

Pamela Lynn

Barbara Haney

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What is happening over Interior Alaska — who paid for it, the rain that followed, and what we can do?

There are two separate weather-modification stories in Alaska this year. Do not mix them up.

1. Kenai / Homer — Rainmaker

Rainmaker Technology, a California company, flew drones near Homer in August and released silver iodide. Locals found out afterward. Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Peter Micciche and the assembly moved toward local rules and asked Juneau to ban or regulate weather modification. Homer Rep. Sarah Vance told the company to stop, asked Gov. Mike Dunleavy for an administrative pause, and is drafting notice/requirements legislation.

2. Nenana / Tanana Valley — Skyward

A NOAA weather-modification filing describes Skyward Wildfire Technologies Inc., a Vancouver company, reporting UAS chaff deployment in the Nenana area in a window running roughly July 9 / July 19 through September 30, 2026. Stated purpose: R&D / lightning-related testing. Material described: aluminum-coated silica or basalt fiber chaff — not silver iodide.

That NOAA form is a report, not a permit. The 1972 Weather Modification Reporting Act makes operators file. NOAA does not approve the work, run an EIS, or police the payload. Alaska has no statewide permit or ban. AS 26.23.150 is disaster-prevention study language, not authorization for a private drop over a town.

The rain after the filing window opened

Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley went from a dry stretch into record wet after the Nenana reporting window started. These are the gauge numbers that have been cited for this season. Check them against NWS Fairbanks climate summaries and keep the printouts.

July 9 — first day tied to the start of the reported activity

Fairbanks: 0.42 inches that day. That was the biggest single-day dump of July. The 8th was zero. The 7th was a trace. Then 0.42 landed on the 9th.

Early September — when people started calling it record rainfall

• Sept. 1: 0.00

• Sept. 2: 0.08

• Sept. 3: 0.09

• Sept. 4: 0.80�By the 5th, local summaries were already calling it one of the wettest starts to September on record.

Mid-to-late September

By about Sept. 16, Fairbanks was being cited at 3.77 inches for the month against a normal near 0.96 inches.

By Sept. 20: 3.82 inches versus that same 0.96-inch normal — roughly four times a typical September to that date.

Season-to-date figures circulating with those totals put the year around 13.68 inches and climbing.

Hills and the river

Munson Ridge north of town was cited over 5 inches by mid-September and about 8 inches since mid-August. The Chena was rising toward flood concerns on the back of that same wet pattern. Daily temperature range collapsed under persistent cloud.

Official weather offices will call this a wet pattern. Critics say the Nenana filing, the river corridor, and the gauges lined up too cleanly. Either way: no hearing, no EIS, no local vote.

Who paid for the runway and the drone program

State of Alaska / taxpayers — ACUASI (UAF)

• $10 million — FY2023

• $10 million — FY2024

• $6 million — later operating increment ($2 million a year, FY2026–FY2028)

• About $26 million in state money through that stretch, per House Finance when the operating increment moved

Gov. Mike Dunleavy put ACUASI in his budgets and backed the FAA test-site waiver. The public pitch was “drone economy,” cargo, medical drops, and workforce — not weather modification.

House Finance co-chairs in that period: Calvin Schrage, Andy Josephson, Neal Foster. Committee members included Sara Hannan, Alyse Galvin, Nellie Jimmie, Frank Tomaszewski, Jamie Allard, Jeremy Bynum, Will Stapp, and DeLena Johnson. Not unanimous in committee. Full House operating budget later passed close. Senate Finance under Lyman Hoffman, majority leadership including Cathy Giessel, signed final budgets. There was no standalone vote that said “fund chaff over Nenana.”

Federal money — hangar and airspace

• Nenana hangar: $3.3 million, Board of Regents, February 2023. Paid with federal COVID relief. The legislature had designated $10 million of Alaska’s federal COVID allocation to ACUASI; the hangar came out of that pipeline.

• ACUASI is an FAA unmanned-aircraft test site. That is the waiver umbrella. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan publicly supported the test-site / waiver track. Murkowski also secured $2 million in directed federal spending for ACUASI counter-UAS work.

• Later UA budget requests floated $12 million general fund + $24 million non-general fund ($36 million / three years) to keep expanding the program. Treat that last line as a request until a final enacted bill matches it.

Skyward’s own money — Canada

Not the same pot as the hangar.

• Innovate BC — up to $1 million

• NorthX — about $643,000

• NRC-IRAP — about $150,000

• Venture: Climate Innovation Capital led a roughly $7.9 million CAD extension; Diagram Ventures and Active Impact Investments also named around that round

On the order of $10 million Canadian for the company and field work.

Nenana’s cut

City owns the airport. UAF took a 50-year lease. Public stories never printed a monthly rent number.

Who runs the field

• ACUASI director: Cathy Cahill

• Deputy director: John Robinson

• Chief pilot publicly tied to Nenana operations: Jason Williams

• Nenana Mayor: Joshua Verhagen

• Airport / port: Daniel Smith

• Council: Kari Irish, Charles (Scott) Stevens, Tarn Coffey, Karen Harvey, Kat McElroy, Tallon Shreeve

FAA polices planes and airspace, not “what is in the dispenser.” NOAA files paper. DNR and DEC have already said on the Homer matter that Alaska has no cloud-seeding permit shop.

How to stop it

Local first. Same theory as a dry village: ban the cargo. Fairbanks North Star Borough, City of Fairbanks, Nenana, North Pole, and Delta need matching ordinances so a drone cannot hop the line.

Next Nenana council on the standing calendar: Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 6:30 p.m., City Hall, 723 A Street. Confirm first.

907-888-5036

[email protected]

[email protected]

Ask on the record for the full UAF lease, side letters, who authorizes payloads, and whether atmospheric-release materials are allowed off that field. Bring the rain table.

Statewide. Phil Izon’s Rainmaker Act — ban weather modification and solar radiation modification, ban staging it at public-use airports, penalties. Alaska initiative: 34,098 valid signatures, plus 30 of 40 House districts at 7% of that district’s last general-election vote. Text: takealaskabythehorns.com. Mail: Phil Izon, 12110 Business Blvd. Ste 6 PMB 113, Eagle River, AK 99577.

Some Republicans funded the hangar. Some Republicans are writing limits after Homer. The split is public consent versus a reporting form and a budget line that said “drone economy.”

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TALKEETNA IS A VILLAGE AND A HISTORICAL DISTRICT IN ALASKA.

Talkeetna is regulated under MSB 17.25 and divided into multiple land use districts. Each district has its own rules for what is allowed, what requires a Conditional Use Permit (CUP), and what is prohibited.

Before applying, identify your district and review the applicable standards.

rainmaker technology corporation Rainmaker Technology Corporation is a next-generation weather modification and cloud-seeding startup based in El Segundo, California, founded in 2023 by CEO Augustus Doricko. [1, 2]

• Core Technology: Uses autonomous, weather-resistant drones (UAVs) to fly directly into clouds and release microscopic particles of silver iodide, which act as ice nuclei to trigger rain or snow. [1, 2, 3]
• Data Validation: Integrates advanced radar and weather-awareness platforms to measure and physically validate the exact amount of precipitation produced—a historically missing verification step in traditional cloud seeding. [1, 2]
• Recent Milestones: Raised a $100 million Series B funding round in September 2026 to scale its operations. It has demonstrated successful, verified water generation projects across Utah, Oregon, and Alaska. [1, 2, 3]
• Mission: Aims to alleviate regional droughts, protect ecosystems, recharge aquifers, and reduce wildfire risks. [1]

Would you like to know more about Rainmaker's recent funding details, its expansion plans, or how drone-based cloud seeding compares to traditional aircraft methods?RainmakerRainmaker | Leading Cloud Seeding Technology Company in the U.S.Rainmaker is a company that uses cloud seeding to end water scarcity. Rainmaker's technology modernizes the American-made process of cloud seeding. Their integr...PR NewswireRainmaker's Cloud Seeding Breakthrough: FirstBackground Rainmaker Technology Corporation is a next-generation cloud seeding company based in El Segundo Calif. Using drone technology and advanced radar, Rai...YouTube·Deseret News2:19How Rainmaker Is Changing Cloud Seeding in UtahPR NewswireRainmaker Raises $100M Series B to Scale LowBackground Rainmaker Technology Corporation is a next-generation cloud seeding company based in El Segundo, Calif. The company flies weather-resistant drones in...Startup IntrosRainmaker Technology: Funding, Team & Investors | Startup IntrosOrigin Story Rainmaker was founded in 2023 by Augustus Doricko, its CEO, in El Segundo, CA, amid the LA hard-tech renaissance.[2][3] Doricko, motivated by trend...YouTube·NewsNation4:21This startup says it can make rain — Here's howYouTube·Deseret News2:19How Rainmaker Is Changing Cloud Seeding in Utah