Mr. Don A. Griffith received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Construction and Management from Colorado State University in 1963. Following graduation, Mr. Griffith received a commission from the U.S. Air Force and attended the University of Utah for one year. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology from this institution. After serving as a Weather Officer at Vandenberg AFB, California, and Tan Son Nhut AFB, Vietnam he was discharged from the Air Force in 1967 holding the rank of Captain. He worked for Booz-Allen Applied Research for a year in Los Angeles then accepted employment with the Fresno State College Foundation working as a research meteorologist on a winter time weather modification research program that was conducted in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. He joined North American Weather Consultants, Inc. (NAWC) in 1973 with headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. NAWC was a privately held company founded in 1950. Work assignments included the design, conduct and evaluation of operational and research-oriented weather modification (commonly called cloud seeding) programs with the goal of augmenting naturally occurring precipitation.  He became a Vice President and partial owner of NAWC in 1977 and was placed in charge of all NAWC’s operational and research-oriented weather modification programs.  NAWC’s corporate headquarters were moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1980 with work conducted primarily in the air quality and weather modification arenas. NAWC was purchased by a publicly traded company in 1992. Mr. Griffith served as a Vice-President of this corporation. Then Mr. Griffith and Mr. Mark Solak bought NAWC back from this publicly traded company in 1999. NAWC once again became a privately held company registered to do business in the State of Utah. Following this purchase, Mr. Griffith became President of NAWC continuing to direct NAWC’s weather modification programs that included not only the design, operation and evaluation of operational and research-oriented  weather modification programs but also the conduct of weather modification feasibility/design studies all with the goal of augmenting naturally occurring precipitation over relatively large target areas. The major user groups that derive benefits from such programs include agriculture, irrigated agriculture, municipal water suppliers and hydroelectric power generation entities. Over the years NAWC conducted many programs in several western states (dating back to the 1950’s) and in several other countries. According to a Weather Modification Association’s Statement on capabilities, typical results from the conduct of such programs average from 5% to 15% increases in precipitation.

Mr. Griffith holds certifications from the Weather Modification Association as both a Manager and Operator of cloud seeding programs and since 1996 a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (CCM) certification from the American Meteorological Society.

Mr. Griffith has authored or co-authored numerous peer reviewed papers and has made numerous conference presentations (both domestic and abroad) in the field of weather modification. He has for a number of years and continues to be a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the Weather Modification Association (WMA). Mr. Griffith served as the chair of an ASCE sub-committee that published an ASCE Standard entitled “Standard Practice for the Design and Operation of Precipitation Enhancement Programs” in 2004. He was a co-author of an update of this Standard that was published in 2017. He also served as a co-author in the revision of an earlier ASCE manual (of which he was also a co-author). This manual, Manual #81 entitled “Guidelines for Cloud Seeding to Augment Precipitation, Third Edition”, was published in 2016. He is currently working as a co-author on an update to this publication. Mr. Griffith served as the President of the Weather Modification Association (WMA) for three different terms and has been and continues to be a member of various boards and committees of this Association. Mr. Griffith severed two different terms on the AMS Committee on Planned and Inadvertent Weather Modification.

Mr. Griffith and his partner Mr. Mark Solak sold North American Weather Consultants in November 2019.   He has retired but continues to do consulting work with this firm.