THE OLD ADAGE that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it is no longer valid. Today, two superpowers have the ability to control weather around the world: the United States and Russia. Other countries are working feverishly to catch up.

The search for the mastery of the elements that began with Nikola Tesla in the late 1800s, involving the transmission of electrical energy through space, has become a reality.

The consequences are monumental. Weather can be used as a blessing or as a doomsday weapon.

All the necessary elements are in place.

In 1969, the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent for "a method of increasing the likelihood of precipitation by the artificial introduction of sea water vapor into the atmosphere." In 1971, a patent was issued to the Westinghouse Electric Corporation for a system for irradiation of planet surface areas.

In 1971, a patent was issued to the National Science Foundation for a weather modification method.

In the early 1970s, the U.S. Congressional Committee on Oceans and Internal Environment held hearings on our military research into weather and climate modification, and found that the defense department had plans for creating tidal waves through the coordinated use of nuclear weapons.

The danger of a devastating confrontation between the United States and Russia became so great that in 1977 a UN treaty against weather modification for hostile purposes was signed by the United States and Russia.

That treaty did not signify the end of weather experimentation. In 1978, the United States launched an experiment that created a downpour of rain over six counties in northern Wisconsin. The storm generated winds of one hundred seventy-five miles per hour and caused fifty million dollars in damages. Russia, meanwhile, has been working on its own projects.

In 1992, the Wall Street Journal reported that a Russian company, Elat Intelligence Technologies, was selling weather control equipment tailored to specific needs, using the slogan "Weather Made to Order." Their services are available to every country in the world.

As the experiments in both countries continued, weather patterns began to change. As early as the 1980s, strange weather phenomena were being reported.

"A ridge of high pressure has hovered nearly 800 miles off the California coast for the past two months, blocking the usual flow of moist air from the Pacific."-Time magazine, January 1981.

"?the stagnant high-pressure season acted like a barrier, preventing the normal flow of weather patterns from west to east." -New York Times, July 29, 1993.

The weather catastrophes described in the body of this novel have all happened.

Weather is the most powerful force we know. Whoever controls it can disrupt world economies with perpetual rainstorms or tornadoes; wipe out crops in a drought; cause earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis; close world airports; and cause devastation on enemy battlefields.

We could all sleep better if a world leader said, "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." And it was the truth.