Humanity has always been interested in the possibility of modifying and influencing the weather. Many researchers, physicists, and meteorologists have dealt with the subject, but have never reached significant results. With the development of technology, the scientific communities find it difficult to accept the fact that in reality, it is not quite possible to influence the weather. This, among other reasons, is why they have begun to inspect how different atmospheric phenomena may be caused and extinguished. A significant breakthrough in these experiments was first noted in the middle of the 1900s due to which not only the scientific community began to apply weather control measures, but also the military for martial purposes. In Hungary, the first such measure was taken due to societal needs toward reducing the damages caused by hail, and the NEFELA Southern Hungarian Hail Prevention Association was formed. The system, which covers three Transdanubian counties, was based on French example, it applies a soil-generator hail prevention method and began operation in 1976. Today, the extent to which hail causes damage has justified the implementation of a nationwide system. The National Agricultural Chamber was granted support for the purpose of building such a system via a tender issued within the framework of Rural Development Program. I will examine the following hypotheses throughout my research: 1. I hypothesize that the hail damage reduction system will work efficiently and yield results. 2. I hypothesize that as a result of the system’s function, damage to agricultural areas will be significantly decreased within the first year. In order to test my hypotheses, I collected data at the National Agricultural Chamber, the National Meteorological Service and the Government Office of Békés County. My examinations reflect that this year saw an exceptionally high number of rain showers compared to previous years, however, despite this fact, the amount of ice damage reported has decreased to half, almost a third, thus, my first hypothesis has proven to be true. Furthermore, the data supports my second hypothesis as well, according to which damage in the agricultural industry has decreased significantly. We can see that the per hectare ice damage reported for each storm is shown to have decreased despite the increase in the number of storms. While assessing my findings, I would like to note that the implementation of the system has only just begun, thus we only have one year’s worth of data available to us. At the same time, it is apparent that there is a significant change in the reduction of ice damage. The conclusion to be drawn from the results of my research is that the function of the National Ice Damage Reduction System is efficient, there are fewer instances of hail with larger ice crystals and the amount and value of agricultural damage have decreased.

hail, moderation of damage done by hail, risk managemet, soil generator, System of Country’s Moderation of Damage Done by Hail

field crops and pastures

Presentation: poster