Without such particles, clouds would be rare: the air would need to be freakishly saturated with water vapour or strangely cold for condensation to occur.
That means building futuristic structures that use wastewater and solar power to produce hydroponic (grown in a nutrient-rich water, without soil) and aeroponic (grown in water-saturated air) crops.
All told, dozens of Midwestern rivers were well over their banks after rains that began Wednesday dumped up to 6 inches of new water on already saturated soil.
On Thursday I reported from the CEH on the latest findings about how much water has soaked into the ground - and saw a bore-hole used for measuring water levels actually spouting out water because the ground was so saturated.