A tried and proven method of increasing rainfall has apparently helped our drought-dry hills.
A team coordinating cloud seeding over Cachuma Lake and Santa Maria's Twitchell Dam watershed say that totals are up about 20%.
The silver iodide pellets shot from a plane or mountaintop launcher can get passing rainclouds to produce more precipitation.
Operators specifically need the clouds to be over the reservoirs and not, for example, over front-country flood zones.