In Los Angeles County, this week's rainfall was beneficial to fighting the drought in Southern California, but officials wanted to ensure they maximized the amount of precipitation that fell during the event. So they seeded the clouds with silver iodide, according to the L.A. Times, in an effort to draw even more rainfall from the skies. But this controversial practice may not be as fruitful as local officials insist, scientists say.

The process of weather modification through cloud seeding has been proven successful at increasing rainfall rates, but also at lessening potential hail damage from storms and even to clear fog, according to the American Meteorological Society. This practice dates as far back as the 1940s, according to North American Weather Consultants, a Utah-based group that is contracted by Los Angeles County to seed clouds during some weather events.

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<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_1603071917373440.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_1603071917373440.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_1603071917373440.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A man walks in rain and hail up Bernal Heights Hill in San Francisco, Monday, March 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

"The beneficiaries typically are municipal water supply groups and irrigated agriculture groups that wish to enhance the snowfall so they can get better spring and summer runoff," Don Griffith, president of NAWC, told ABC News.

It's important to note that this process does not create clouds; rather, the silver iodide only seeds existing clouds. Los Angeles County officials told the L.A. Times they estimate cloud seeding results in about a 15 percent increase in precipitation.

Some scientists disagree with the county's proclamation, however. Lynn Russell, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Scripps Institute, told NBC San Diego that there's "no scientist who actually thinks that cloud seeding works." She insists that there has been no scientific increase in rainfall totals when the seeding techniques are used.

Officials have not yet said if they believe the cloud-seeding efforts yielded more rainfall in Southern California this week, but since the county has a $550,000 contract with NAWC, there's likely to be more silver iodide in the air during future rain events.

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