Holy Hail Pa, Was That a Cannon?

OK. I had to do a double take at the byline and dateline to be sure I wasn’t reading agri-satire from The Onion.

Turns out, farm neighbors in some fruit-farm regions have more to complain about than livestock odors and slow-moving tractors.

According to the AP, there’s been a resurgence of the use of hail cannons. Farmers use them to shoot into developing storms to apparently deter hail formation.

The article linked above quotes a meteorologist who disputes the value of hail cannons. But farmers are convinced enough that they’re shelling out some serious dough: $40,000. That’s how much a Vermont orchard owner paid after he lost $600,000 when a hail storm ruined his fruit crop in 2007.

It looks like this dispute in Vermont may need to be settled in court. Neighbors are filing noise complaints and farmers are defending themselves with a protective right-to-farm law.

I’m sensitive to the plight of the farmer. But firing cannons into the sky that scare the bejeezus out of the community doesn’t seem like a good solution.

Despite the scientist v. farmer debate about their effectiveness, hail cannons have been around for decades.

Love these pix from Ian Geldard on Flickr. The first is a modern hail cannon. The second is a 19th century version.