Did cloud seeding worsen Tasmania's flood crisis?

The Tasmanian government will investigate
whether  a state-owned energy company
 added to this week's devastating floods.

The Tasmanian government has called for answers over whether a state-owned energy company added to this week's devastating floods by cloud seeding, despite warnings brutal weather was hours away.

Hydro Tasmania has been cloud seeding, a controversial technique to boost rainfall above hydro-electric dams, since April as part of the state's response to an energy crisis.

It continued last Sunday, targeting Lake Echo in the Upper Derwent Valley in central Tasmania, during forecasts of heavy rain.

The catchment flooded early on Monday, hitting a downstream farming community around the town of Ouse.

A search continues for 81-year-old farmer Trevor Foster – one of three Tasmanians believed to have died in the floods – and there has been extensive loss of livestock and property.

Read Adam Morton’s story in the Melbourne Age - “Did a cloud-seeding flight on Sunday deepen Tasmania's flood crisis?”