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Colorado's San Luis Valley has long been a hotbed for sightings of strange things in the sky, but this week it is not UFOs that are causing the buzz.

Hundreds of drone flights have taken to the skies near Alamosa as part of what is billed as Flight Week, mounted by the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely Piloted Aircraft, which last week held its 2018 conference in Boulder.

This is far more than clever men and women simply showing off the latest in pilotless flying machines. Scientists taking part in the drone-a-thon are taking measurements by drone to better understand how storms form, and build. Other questions being examined include an exploration of how irrigation can change weather patterns, and whether the growth of cattle can be measured by drone. The performance of...