Eric, the subject of hail cannons has long been a sticking point across a large swath of West Texas. In 1995, I did an article about the first one in the region, at Powell Flower Farms outside of Fort Davis. At the time I moved back to Midland in 2000, there were plans to set one up one to protect the Ste. Genevieve vineyards out towards Bakersfield. Your words "they own vast amounts of water rights and can irrigate to their heart's content" has me thinking you're talking about the Belding Farms Pecan Orchard and/or Clayton Williams' farms west of town. Is that the case?

Interesting post, Eric. Not long ago, as I was riding through some of the north Texas back country, I was pondering the lengths of tubular steel (surely not aluminum?) fencing that seemed to stretch for miles. It seemed to me then that it must both expensive and difficult to install all of that.

I'd never heard of a hail cannon before, so I followed the link. Aside from the noise, it doesn't sound like such a bad deal in terms of precipitation. At least... not if the hail falls harmlessly as slush or rain, as the article reports. If it stops precipitation altogether, that would be a bad deal.

As annoying as the whistling must be, I suppose it's nothing compared to the propane cannons I've seen and (more to the point) heard used in northeast Ohio to scare the crows out of corn fields. The first time I ever encountered those was during bike ride I did with a buddy a couple years ago. The first one that went off startled me nearly off the saddle. It sounded a little too much like the shotguns of the dove hunters who frequent one of the local bike routes.

Jeff, I intentionally didn't name any names. Those who know, know; those who don't, probably don't need to.

Foo, I didn't catch the reference to whistling in the Wikipedia article. I have no idea what that means, because the hail cannons being employed out here are the same as you experienced in Ohio. I'm at a loss to explain how a shockwave of that magnitude could manifest itself as a whistling noise.

The article casts doubt on the effectiveness of this technique, but observers in this area have repeatedly reported watching thunderheads begin to develop and then dissipate before their eyes when the cannons started firing.

Eric, the people at Powell swore by their hail cannon at the time. They also tried to be as selective as possible about its use, and stressed that every effort was made to try and determine a storm's potential for producing hail, in particular.

It remains a topic of debate, sometimes heated debate, and I don't know if it's one that can be easily resolved. In the past some of our larger agriculture-related businesses in Pecos County have lost a huge chunk of their product (90% and up) to a single bad hailstorm.

Another point ..... I'm not familiar with the whistling, either. Just a bang - quite literally like a cannon going off. Of course, that was ten years ago, and I think the model I saw-and-heard demonstrated was a few years old already. There may have been some new technological developments sonce then.

In the past some of our larger agriculture-related businesses in Pecos County have lost a huge chunk of their product (90% and up) to a single bad hailstorm.

I certainly don't mean to minimize the potential costs of hailstorms. I know that Belding Farms lost an entire pecan crop two years ago (or was it last year...?) after a hailstorm.

The tough issue is the extent to which one can potentially harm neighboring interests while protecting one's own investment.

Could it be all the noise is driving those turkeys into town, or could it be that those turkeys are really just locals?

Dale, the turkeys have been regular visitors inside the Fort Stockton limits for many, many years. I think it's been the lack of water - rather than the abundance of noise - that has them heading into town. They do make for quite a sight, though, don't they?

A bit more info on the cannons...Ste. Genevieve Winery, now named Mesa Vineyard Winery; they have been using the cannon method of controlling hail for several years. Also, the hailstorm that did so much damage to Belding Farms was back in 2004. The freeze that destroyed most of the pecan crop last year came at Easter 2007.

The freeze that destroyed most of the pecan crop last year came at Easter 2007

That's right; I was getting my meteorological disasters mixed up!

I also didn't realize the winery had changed names.

We've kept our bottles of Ste. Genevieve Earthquake Red, where the labels show a big crack splitting their trademark mesa.