They selected two rural areas to examine so they could compare precipitation in unpolluted regions against what was happening near Salt Lake City.

At Beaver, precipitation "had increased with time, instead of decreasing as we found in Salt Lake City," he said. Beaver's situation may be complicated because the company is carrying out a cloud-seeding program that may have increased precipitation in the nearby mountains.

Without such complications are Ely, Nev., and the mountainous region to its east called Berry Creek. There, records shows "no indications of decreases . . . but rather slight increases with time," over the period 1949-2004, he said.

After the North American Weather Consultants study was published, one of the authors of the research involving Israel and California took a look at Salt Lake City and "also found decreases in mountainous areas" to the east, he said.

That researcher, D. Rosenfeld, "also found declines in mountains areas east of Albuquerque, east of Seattle, east of Phoenix," he added.

What's next for the theory?

Griffith said a good study would be to examine weather patterns in comparison to pollution levels, especially particulate pollution of 2.5 microns or less in size.

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com

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