Using Drones to Make Rain and Snow with Rainmaker

Jan 20, 2026

Augustus Doricko, the Founder and CEO of Rainmaker, sheds light on the cutting-edge world of cloud seeding. He demystifies the technology, explaining how it utilizes drones and radar to enhance precipitation, making it not just science fiction but a viable solution to increasing water scarcity. Augustus discusses the importance of dual-polarization radar for validating results, the advantages of drones over traditional planes, and the focus on utilizing snowpack as a sustainable water source. He also tackles public misconceptions and regulatory challenges.

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ADVICE

Vertically Integrate To Improve Outcomes

Integrate targeting radar, robust drones, sensors, and software to improve seeding efficiency and measurement.
Build vertically to reduce costs and control validation rather than relying on legacy operators alone.

ADVICE

Use Weather-Resistant Drones Safely

Use drones to remove pilot risk, cut CapEx, and enable slower, precise searches for supercooled liquid pockets.
Design anti-icing systems for rotors rather than chemical de-icing that can disrupt cloud physics.

INSIGHT

Harder Clouds Need More Sensors

Many seedable clouds are meteorologically complex, making attribution harder even with current radar.
Additional in-situ sensors and X-band radar are required to validate effects in those juicier clouds.

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Augustus Doricko is Founder and CEO at Rainmaker, a company using cloud seeding, drones, and radar to increase rain and snow as water scarcity and drought intensify across the West. In this episode of Inevitable, the conversation focuses on why cloud seeding—often misunderstood as science fiction or geoengineering—has existed for decades and why it has only recently become possible to prove it actually works.

The discussion centers on the industry’s core constraint: attribution. For years, operators couldn’t measure whether precipitation would have occurred anyway. Doricko explains how advances in dual-polarization radar and targeted flight paths now make it possible to identify human-caused snowfall, unlocking a path to scale.

Doricko also walks through Rainmaker’s vertically integrated approach, from weather-resistant drones and proprietary radar to software and validation systems, and why the company focuses on snowpack as a bankable water source. The episode also addresses public scrutiny, regulatory bans, and what it takes to build water infrastructure in a category that’s easy to misunderstand but increasingly necessary.

Episode recorded on Dec 16, 2025 (Published on Jan 20, 2026)

In this episode, we cover:

[1:53] Cloud seeding vs geoengineering
[3:27] How cloud seeding works and its history
[9:14] When and how it became commercially deployable
[15:28] Advantages of using drones vs manned aircraft
[18:34] The limits of today’s validation methods
[24:54] Why Rainmaker focuses on snowpack first
[27:34] Rainmaker’s go to market
[29:34] Acquiring legacy operators to scale faster
[32:40] Why Rainmaker sells services, not water
[38:25] State bans, politics, and public backlash
[40:39] Chemtrails and Texas flood controversies
[47:15] The future of cloud seeding in the US and abroad

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant