THAILAND’S royal rainmaking story started when His Majesty the King visited 15 provinces in the Northeast in the first three weeks of November in 1955.
According to the website rainmakings.blogspot.com and Captain ML Chititewan Devakul of the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation, HM the King wrote a document titled “Weather Modification for Rainmaking” that said: “On Monday 14 November (1955), we travelled by car from Nakhon Phanom to Kalasin, passing through Sakon Nakhon and the Pupan mountain range. We made an unscheduled stop when we saw a small group of people; one man said that they had walked 20 kilometres from Kuchinarai, just to see us drive by. Upon learning that we were going to Kalasin, which is a long way to go, he told us to go on our way, though he would love to have us stay. He said that we had a long way to go so he offered me a small packet of food.”
“When he saw my look of concern, he assured me that he had another one for himself. This is real hospitality. We next had an official stop at the intersection of the districts of Kuchinarai and Sahaskhant. There I asked the people about their rice crop. I thought that drought must have destroyed their drop; to my surprise, the people reported that they had suffered floods. For me it was strange because the area around was like a desert with dust flying around. In fact, they had both floods and droughts; that is why the people of the Northeast are so poor.
“… At that time I looked up at the sky and saw that there were many clouds, but they were blown past the arid land. The solution lies on how to make those clouds fall as rain in the locality. That idea was the beginning of the artificial rainmaking project, which met with success a few years later.”
That was how it all started. According to ML Chititewan, the first actual rainmaking operation took place in Nakhon Ratchasima province in 1969 when dry ice in small flakes of approximately 1 cubic inch (2.5cm) in size had been chosen as the first rainmaking seeding substance.
“It was dispensed from a small aircraft at the amount of 100 grams at a 30-second interval into the existing cumulus cloud in the sky over its top and at an altitude of not above 10,000 feet. As predicted, after 15 to 30 minutes of seeding, this cumulus cloud yielded and developed to become bigger, top higher, as well as intensified to become darker at its base following the method used, which is known as direct seeding.
“This strong rain cloud then also moved downwind toward the mountain and far over the ridges until it could not be seen whether it finally yielded rain or not. But with the observation by land the next day there was strong evidence that there had been a reasonable amount of rain on the downwind side over the target catchments, as it was also confirmed by the local villagers themselves in the area.
“During the years 1969 to 1970 the success and achievement of research, experiments and actual operations of rainmaking eventually spread out to the media and to the public. In the following year of 1971 severe drought hit the provinces of Phichit and Nakhon Sawan in central Thailand. Therefore, farmers, with their dying crops, took the opportunity to present a petition to HM the King for help.”
Great success came in 1971 when Nakhon Sawan airfield was used as the airbase for rainmaking operations. After the technology of rainmaking continually improved, with further continuous research and scientific experiments.
Singapore was the first Asean nation interested in the Thai rainmaking technology due to a water shortage in the city-state. In fact, the King directed all operational planning himself, as well as kindly welcoming Singaporean observers by setting a date for a rainmaking demonstration – held on October 19, 1972 at the Khang Khra Chan reservoir.
The result of the demonstration was very successful with rain clouds seeded, built up, dragged and forced to yield rain with a reasonable amount of precipitation over the assigned target in just five hours.

Many techniques developed
Over the years, many techniques were developed, including a way to induce and “drag” rain clouds away from mountaintops to “force” them to rain on target areas on the rain-shadow side, downwind, plus a way to “delay” condensation and precipitation by rain clouds which move away from targeted areas.
Other techniques sought to expand rain clouds and rain mass upwind, and “drag” a rain cloud away from an undesired location and on to a targeted area, as well as a technique of using a “hot formula” along with cold rainmaking substances at timed intervals over orographic or stratiform clouds over mountain areas near a reservoir in order to make them develop more rain.
In 2005, the European Union granted an Intellectual Property Right Patent for HM the King’s rainmaking technology. In 2006, the United Nations presented its top award – the UNDP Human Development Lifetime Achievement Award – in recognition of the King’s great success in human development.
In 2007, World Intellectual Property Organisation or WIPO presented the King with a World Leader’s Award in Intellectual Property Rights for developments including royal rainmaking technology.
One of the royal techniques is called a “super-sandwich” and involves using aircraft to “seed” warm and cold clouds at different altitudes to make rain. This technique is quite efficient and effective, as it can precisely target areas where rain is sought.
Malaysia, Indonesia and some Middle Eastern nations have sought details of the patented technique for use in their countries. The King previously also granted permission to Queensland in Australia to use his techniques of artificial rainmaking to combat severe drought.