A bicycle is covered with snow on the street of Beijing on Sunday.
(Ng Han Guan/AP)Photos (1 of 1)
Beijing gets early snow! Thank cloud seeding.
China's latest cloud seeding effort brought Beijing's earliest snow in 20 years on Sunday.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer 11.02.09
BEIJING – When I drew my curtains on Sunday morning to find thick snow falling outside, I thought something weird was going on.
Saturday had been gloriously warm and sunny. And even if the temperature had plummeted overnight, which it clearly had, Beijing winters are generally dry as a bone.
Monday morning, all was revealed. Beijing’s weathermen had been at work, it turned out, seeding the clouds to make it rain. Or snow, as it happened.
“We have to seize every opportunity to increase precipitation,” the head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office, Zhang Qiang, told the daily Global Times. “Beijing had almost no rainfall in October.”
You may not have a Weather Modification Office in your country. You don’t know what you are missing.
Quite apart from giving Beijing kids four inches of unexpected snow to play in this weekend, these are the people who stopped it raining on the 2008 Summer Olympics during what is normally one of the wettest months of the year, and kept China’s military might dry last month for the National Day parade.
They do it by launching rockets that seed the clouds with silver iodide pellets, provoking rain (or snow) when and where they want. They also use the rockets to prevent hail.
Sunday’s snow was the earliest for 21 years in Beijing, and came six weeks before the first snowfall last year. It had almost all gone by Monday morning, though; strong winds had blown it off the trees, and armies of municipal workers wielding broad bamboo twig brushes had swept it from the streets.
We’ll probably get a dusting or two of snow this winter, as usual. But if the rainmakers decide to work their magic again during another cold snap, I hope they will give us some advance warning. That way I can arrange a trip to the hills outside the city to go skiing.
How bad is China’s drought? Click here for more on why 2,500 rockets were fired into the clouds in one week last winter.
<< North Korea warns US: negotiate or else | MainComments
2. Nicholas | 11.02.09
And who is not getting the precipitation they intercepted? It looks like water rights will go verticle like the legal definition of condominiums. There may be agreements on water taken from rivers and the ground, but the subject of agreements on who takes water from the air has not yet been breached. Eventually there will be outrage over it.
3. Lee | 11.03.09
Yeah! I’m sure all that inconvenience was worth it! The blackouts in the Capitol! How about the highway closures or the shipping disruptions? Or maybe the drop of 14 degrees in Shanghai? How about the diverting of precipitation from OTHER drought affected northern provinces to selfish ol’ Beijing? How about the sudden temperature drop across several other East Asian nations? All totally SUPER AWESOME!
4. TS | 11.03.09
China is developing very quickly, but they have a huge disadvantage although they want to rule the world. The disadvantage is “food supply”. The country has to feed so many populations, and they are depending on import food materials such as grains, meats, and so on. When the former Soviet Union had a draught during Cold War, they imported grains from the United States through Continental Grains (now acquired by Cargill). Foods are often bigger than weapons and money. Chinese government and authorities have so much confidence, start threatening the other countries these days. However, China cannot feed their own nationals without importing foods, mainly from the United States, Canada, and Australia. They have to recognize the fact before harassing someone.
5. Theodore L Anderson | 11.03.09
Despite many decades of research, there is no robust statistical evidence for the efficacy of intentional weather modification (i.e. cloud-seeding). I find it dismaying that the Christian Science Monitor would fail to consult reputable atmospheric scientists prior to publishing such a story. The claims made about cloud-seeding in this article are complete rubbish.
Theodore L. Anderson, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
6. Lee | 11.04.09
I’ve been reading that sustained, year after year, cloud seeding could cause damage.
7. prof.T.Shivaji Rao | 11.11.09
CLOUD SEEDING - GOD GIVEN GIFT TO INTELLECTUALS TO AUGMENT PRECIPITATION BY 25%
Christian Science Monitor has done excellent service to intellectuals who are divided about the science and technolgy behind cloud seeding and its effectiveness in economic production of more water or snowfall.US Academicians know that while American Academy of sciences cast doubts over cloud seeding,the Chinese Academy of sciences established after 40 years of research that cloud seeding is not only highly scientific but also technologically very sound.Today Australians too have confirmed that cloud seeding is highly scientific and they are promoting research to find out under what topographical,meteorological and Geographical conditions the efficiency and economics of cloud seeding will be more fruitful in minimising the damaging impacts of Droughts,floods,disease,water crisis and poverty which are the root causes of social unrest and violence in many countries.Scientific proofs are plenty to establish the facts about Global warming,climate change,Deforestation,escalating environmental pollution that are spreading diseases and ill-health among all nations.But the will to act intime to save man and Nature is not there among men and women because there no fostering of ethical ,moral and spiritual values among even the educated.
Love of Fellowmen is love of God and service to Fellowmen is Service to God.
Great Scientist without a Humanistic view of Man and Nature is anti-humanism
see more details on cloud seeding as the only weapon to fight the emerging problems of environmental pollution and ecological decay in all eco-systems:
. http://english.people.com.cn/english/200007/14/eng20000714_45496.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-06-29-china-rain_x.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rural/content/2007/s1920342.htm
http://video.vividas.com/media/4375_snowyhydro/web/
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2714955.htm
http://www.gitam.edu/cos/env/English-Book.pdf
http://shivajirao.cloudseeding.googlepages.com/scienceofcloudseeding
prof.T.Shivaji Rao.B.E.,M.S.[Rice,Texas,1962]Ph.D.,
Director,centre for environmental studies,Gitam University,India and
Expert,cloud seeding project of Government of Andhra pradesh state
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
1. Twitter Trackbacks for Beijing gets early snow! Thank cloud seeding. | csmonitor.com [csmonitor.com] on Topsy.com | 11.02.09
2. Beijing’s Snow Day Might Hold Solution to Climate Problems | Circle of Blue | WaterNews | 11.10.09
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Daniel | 11.02.09
Does anyone here know if silver iodide is toxic at all? What affect will it have when 2500 rockets worth of it come down on Beijing and the surrounding countryside? If the stuff really is harmless, maybe we should give it a try.