1. Aircraft or artillery spray chemicals (often silver iodide or dry ice) into clouds to encourage tiny vapour droplets to coalesce
2. Droplets of supercooled water (liquid below freezing) coalesce into snow and melt as they fall
3. Heat released as the droplets freeze boosts updrafts, which pull more moist air into the cloud.
[Taken from the following BBC article – Thai king aims high over drought]