## Facts

- Southwest Weather Research, Inc. conducted cloud-seeding and hail-suppression flights, dispersing chemical agents into clouds to alter precipitation and reduce hail.
- Rounsaville and other West Texas ranchers owned land in or near the area of the flights and depended on natural rainfall for ranch operations.
- Plaintiffs alleged Southwest’s operations occurred over or immediately adjacent to their properties and dissipated rain clouds that otherwise would have produced rainfall on their land.
- Plaintiffs claimed ongoing or threatened harm from reduced precipitation, including damage to land productivity and ranching operations, and asserted damages were inadequate.
- The trial court granted a temporary injunction restraining Southwest’s weather-modification activities over a broad area that included, and extended beyond, plaintiffs’ lands.
- Southwest appealed, disputing any protectable interest in rainfall/weather over plaintiffs’ land and arguing the injunction was unsupported, overbroad, and outside the trial court’s jurisdiction.

## Issues

1. Whether landowners have a protectable property interest in the natural rainfall and conditions in the airspace above their land sufficient to support claims of trespass or wrongful interference based on cloud seeding.
2. Whether the evidence supported a temporary injunction based on probable right and probable irreparable injury.
3. Whether the temporary injunction was impermissibly broad by restricting activities over areas beyond plaintiffs’ lands.
4. Whether the trial court lacked jurisdiction because the dispute concerned clouds or airspace rather than injury to land.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the grant of a temporary injunction, concluding the record supported findings of probable right and probable irreparable injury pending trial.
- The court rejected the jurisdictional challenge, treating the suit as one alleging injury to land and its use.
- The court modified the injunction as overbroad and limited it to restrain Southwest’s operations only over plaintiffs’ lands.
- Disposition: temporary injunction affirmed as modified.

## Legal Principles

- A temporary injunction may issue when the applicant shows a probable right to relief and a probable, irreparable injury if the complained-of conduct continues until trial.
- A landowner’s protectable interests may extend to invasions occurring in the airspace associated with the land when the conduct interferes with the land’s use and enjoyment, including interference alleged to reduce rainfall on the property.
- Injunctive relief must be no broader than necessary to protect the rights of the parties before the court; geographic scope should be limited to the property interests proven.
- A court has jurisdiction where the gravamen of the claim is damage to land and impairment of its use, even if the alleged mechanism involves atmospheric activity.

## Conclusion

The appellate court upheld temporary injunctive protection for landowners claiming cloud seeding over their property interfered with rainfall and harmed land use, but narrowed the order to apply only to the plaintiffs’ lands because broader territorial restraints exceeded what was necessary to protect the asserted property rights pending a final trial.


Southwest Weather Research, Inc. v. Rounsaville, 320 S.W.2d 211 (Tex. Civ. App.—El Paso 1958)