There were no flood warnings for the area in Tasmania targeted by a cloud-seeding operation the day before floods devastated the town of Ouse, Hydro Tasmania has said.

The state-owned energy company has come under fire for conducting a cloud-seeding flight over the Derwent River catchment on Sunday.

On Monday, the town of Ouse in southern Tasmania was ravaged by floods and farmer Trevor Foster, 81, was swept away.

Premier Will Hodgman said Energy Minister Matthew Groom had sought an explanation from Hydro Tasmania.

What is cloud seeding? Hydro Tasmania describes cloud seeding as a technique for increasing precipitation (eg. rain or snow) using naturally occurring clouds

Hydro Tasmania describes cloud seeding as a technique for increasing precipitation (eg. rain or snow) using naturally occurring clouds "It involves the introduction of additional particles into suitable clouds to encourage the formation and growth of ice crystals or raindrops and thus increase the amount of precipitation that will fall from the cloud"

In a statement, the company expressed sympathy for the people affected by the floods and said it understood there was "community concern about its cloud-seeding program".

The practice aims to increase rain, and in doing so boost dam levels, by adding chemicals to clouds that promote the growth of ice crystals or raindrops.

But Hydro Tasmania said the flight in question did not operate in a flood-warning area.

"There were no flood warnings in effect for the Upper Derwent at the time of the flight," the statement said.

"This area received a substantial, but not excessive, amount of rain after Sunday morning's flight."

Sunday's cloud seeding did not contribute to the flooding of Ouse, the company said.

"Water in the Ouse River came from the overtopping of Lake Augusta due to the flood event. Lake Augusta is not in the catchment targeted by Sunday's cloud-seeding flight," it said.

"We believe that operation of our dams and waterways did not contribute to the flood flow."

More information, please: farmers

Deputy Premier Jeremy Rockliff said he did not have enough detail to say whether the cloud seeding was illogical when there was severe weather forecast.

"I'm sure if you were to ask any farmer that's been affected by the floods they would probably, most likely, definitely, answer that in the affirmative," he said.

Farmers have questioned the logic. In the past, their general objection against cloud seeding was that it took rain away from their properties.

In this instance, though, farmers like Scott Ashton-Jones wondered why the cloud seeding went ahead at all and what role it played in the floods.

"The extent to which cloud seeding has exaggerated the flood is still to be determined of course, but the evidence from previous cloud-seeding operations is that it works and therefore it will have exaggerated the flood to some extent," he said.

"Hydro has always claimed positive results from cloud seeding."

George Mills said he heard the cloud-seeding flight on Sunday morning and wondered what was going on.

"We want to understand whether the cloud seeding has helped to create this massive flood from the local rivers which we've never ever seen," he said.

"If the Hydro have had something to do with that with their cloud seeding, well we want to understand that because in the future we need to have closer information."

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