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Last Update: 09/22/2026 at 11:34 PM EST
Weather Drones
Coverage from Tech Times, FedScoop, and others
Weather drones extend atmospheric measurements into places and conditions that conventional weather balloons, ground stations, and aircraft cannot easily reach.
Projects such as Oklahoma 3D Mesonet use CopterSonde and Meteomatics aircraft to profile the lower atmosphere and feed data into forecasting research, while other teams fly drones into tornadoes, hurricanes, and cold pools to study dangerous or poorly observed environments. These systems measure variables including temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind, with growing attention to autonomous launch, recovery, and beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations. The subject also includes related weather-modification activity, although observation and forecasting are the better-established focus.
Looking Back
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All Articles23 articles
Important
NOAA awarded KBR a five-year, $1.1 billion National Mesonet expansion beginning September 1, 2026, to add Meteomatics atmospheric drone data across the United States.
9/1/2026 • Commercial Drone Services • General
NOAA tested two Black Swift SØ drones from a WP-3D Orion on April 7 over Florida's east coast to validate precipitation data collection for hurricane forecasting.
6/17/2026 • Public Safety, Emergency Response & Government Use • General
Interesting
Rainmaker Technology Corporation plans to use drone-based cloud seeding with Utah officials in the coming months to increase precipitation for Great Salt Lake restoration.
9/7/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
Rainmaker said its drones produced measurable snowfall over Alaska's Kenai Peninsula on August 23, 2025, using radar to associate precipitation with silver iodide cloud seeding.
8/31/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
RoboNation held its Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where approximately 60 teams tested autonomous drones in storm-response and search-and-rescue missions.
9/17/2026 • Autonomy, AI & Software • General
Rainmaker is testing cloud-seeding drones in the American West to increase rain and snowfall and potentially improve regional water supplies.
9/9/2026 • Commercial Drone Services • General
Rainmaker flew autonomous Elijah quadcopters over Alaska's Kenai Peninsula on August 23, 2026, to seed clouds with silver iodide in an unverified drought-response experiment.
9/3/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
ISARRA researchers flew twelve sensor-equipped drones across coastal Florida near Daytona Beach to measure sea breezes and improve severe-weather forecasting.
9/11/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
OTUS Project completed more than a dozen tornado intercepts and live-streamed an EF3 tornado entry in June near Arnett, Oklahoma, using custom-built camera drones and an omnidirectional wind sensor.
7/18/2026 • Drone Technology & Components • General
Colorado State University atmospheric science researchers reported weather drone cold-pool field campaigns using multi-drone formations and FAA altitude waivers up to 1,200 feet.
5/7/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
In late June, UC Santa Cruz and Watsonville High School trained four students at Watsonville to build and fly FPV drones collecting planetary boundary layer data for local air-quality applications.
7/9/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
Additional
Meteomatics and Oklahoma researchers are preparing regular drone weather flights at Bixby, Oklahoma, to expand atmospheric measurements and improve severe-weather forecasts.
7/31/2026 • Drone Technology & Components • General
Meteomatics and NOAA demonstrated reusable weather-profiling drones on July 30 at Oklahoma's Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station to improve low-atmosphere forecasting.
8/5/2026 • Drone Technology & Components • General
The University of Oklahoma began operating Oklahoma 3D Mesonet in December 2025 at Washington, Oklahoma, using drones to collect frequent low-level atmospheric data.
7/30/2026 • Drone Technology & Components • General
Saildrone will deploy 10 Saildrone Explorer USVs with NOAA during the 2026 hurricane season across the western tropical Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of America.
5/25/2026 • Public Safety, Emergency Response & Government Use • General
Rainmaker used drones in Alaska on August 23 to seed clouds and reported approximately 19 million gallons of resulting precipitation across 100 square miles.
9/5/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
Meteoric Technologies Inc. is developing autonomous electric drone fleets to reduce cloud reflectivity above solar farms, with real-cloud demonstrations still pending.
8/24/2026 • Autonomy, AI & Software • General
Meteoric plans autonomous drone fleets for cloud modification above U.S. solar farms, but the proposed technology remains experimental and environmentally uncertain.
8/23/2026 • Commercial Drone Services • General
Rainmaker Technology used Elijah quadcopters for cloud seeding across western states while the FAA continued reviewing its hazardous-material petition in the United States.
8/24/2026 • Regulation, Safety & Airspace Integration • General
Dr. Joshua Wadler and collaborators will integrate air- and land-launched hurricane drone measurements into NOAA operational forecast models during the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season.
7/20/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
The Federal Aviation Administration authorized University of Oklahoma researchers to conduct beyond-visual-line-of-sight weather-drone flights to 10,000 feet at an Oklahoma field station.
8/17/2026 • Regulation, Safety & Airspace Integration • General
Researchers in Purcell, Oklahoma, demonstrated weather-monitoring drones that collect localized atmospheric data for improved storm forecasting and warnings.
7/30/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General
Meteomatics developed Meteobase, an automated drone station for atmospheric measurements at weather-monitoring sites, providing repeated boundary-layer data without balloon launches.
7/31/2026 • Agriculture, Environment & Land Management • General