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Science Scientists Create Artificial Rain Over Beijing
Michael Hoffman (Blog) - May 6, 2006 3:02 PM

27 comment(s) - last by glennpratt.. on May 8 at 2:05 PM

The Beijing dust storm has been so severe that it can be see from space - Image courtesy NASA

The heaviest rainfall in Beijing has been due to artificial rainfall

To help wash a layer of sand and dust off Beijing due to drought, Chinese scientists from the Beijing Weather Modification Office successfully created artificially generated rainfall. The artificial rainfall brought a total of 9-11.2 mm (about four-tenths of an inch) of rain to Beijing. Although still a rather abstract practice in most of the world, China has apparently been experimenting with artificial rain for many years now. Earlier in the year, scientists also made another rainstorm which helped clear the air after massive dust storms. People are still very skeptical about the success and effectiveness of the artificial rainfall in China -- but apparently it is working to some extent. According to Xinhua:

A total of 163 pieces of cigarette-like sticks containing silver iodide were burnt and seven rocket shells were launched in 6 districts and counties Thursday afternoon, which resulted in the heaviest rainfall in Beijing this spring.

The dust storm was so severe that health warnings were issued to keep children indoors for their safety, according to reports. Although the city is hit with dust storms every spring, this one was reportedly one of the worst in several years.

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Another Take on Weather Creation

By Methusela on 5/7/2006 8:07:55 AM , Rating: 2

http://www.weatherwars.info

A whole lot of conspiracy theory flying around at this website, but it certainly makes you think :).

C&C

By Visk on 5/7/2006 11:07:29 AM , Rating: 2

Reminds me of Command & Conquer Red Alert 2. Allied superweapon

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RE: Another Take on Weather Creation

By The Cheeba on 5/7/2006 7:26:27 PM , Rating: 2

Wild stuff on that site. I have been reading a lot about contrails and stuff though. There was a special on PBS about contrails and sept 11, 2001. Since all the planes were grounded in the US, scientists did a bunch of studies on the amount of light hitting the earth and found that sept 11 through the 13th had 10% MORE light hitting the earth compared to any other day of the year.

You'd pretty much have to admit that changing 10% of the light hitting the planet does something to the weather.

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RE: Another Take on Weather Creation

By Ringold on 5/7/2006 8:52:24 PM , Rating: 2

Just to clarify, that was particular to the area around major hubs, where dozens of major routes and hundreds upon hundreds of jets converged daily, 24-7.

The area around smaller airports and most of the world wasn't effected nearly as much. And contrails might block some light, but they've also got greenhouse properties. Overall, not 100% clear what the effect truly is.

For example, some nuts point out that all that pollution in China actually lowers local temperatures 'cause it blocks out the sun! Nevermind the rest of the planet slowly fries...

It was really interesting to study though, once in a lifetime nation-wide opportunity for research!

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RE: Another Take on Weather Creation

By The Cheeba on 5/8/2006 12:49:38 AM , Rating: 2

I must have missed the parts that they said about major hubs. I thought a lot of the sampling they were taking was out in deserts adn stuff. By the way, if anyone hasn't seen the episode you can watch it online here in HD:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/

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Yayyyy

By android1st on 5/6/2006 3:47:46 PM , Rating: 2

I live in the southwestern US. Here in Phoenix, we average under 8 inches of rain annually. This technology, if it's not incredibly expensive, could make a huge difference in the way fires are fought, droughts are dealt with, and so on. I wanna know more about this process...

RE: Yayyyy

By kpb on 5/6/2006 4:25:17 PM , Rating: 2

I doubt it would help any in area's like that. This requires clouds with water to already be present in the area. It just stimulates rain from that cloud. In a very dry climate like arizona the clouds and water content just isn't there to even try it.

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RE: Yayyyy

By Googer on 5/6/2006 9:25:38 PM , Rating: 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_iodide

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RE: Yayyyy

By glennpratt on 5/8/2006 2:05:18 PM , Rating: 2

Not to mention Phoenix is in a desert... leave it that way. Fire prevention in a desert is sparse vegetation. Fires can't propogate that way, but people introduced grasses that bridge the gap and allow fire to spread.

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Good VS not good...

By Le Québécois on 5/6/2006 4:22:13 PM , Rating: 2

This technic has been know by many scientists (including, like the guy above stated, the US militay) but from what I know, this method to produce rain is really not healt/enviroment good. That why it's never used. So either the chines found a way to render is harmless or they thought that the effect, even if toxic, would be beneficial for Beijing seeing what health danger the sand storm caused this year.

RE: Good VS not good...

By Le Québécois on 5/6/2006 4:26:38 PM , Rating: 2

arg, so much english spelling problems ... Sorry guys( I'm even worst in french... :( ). An edit fonction would really help a guy like me.

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RE: Good VS not good...

By Cygni on 5/6/2006 5:40:21 PM , Rating: 2

The chemical agent used in the flares is silver iodide which is nontoxic, and is actually used as an antiseptic in the medical field. I dont think there is noticeable health issues involved with the silver iodide or dry ice forms of cloud seeding.

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RE: Good VS not good...

By stephenbrooks on 5/6/2006 6:03:01 PM , Rating: 2

I thought silver iodide was used in photographic film actually!

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Dont create rain

By crystal clear on 5/6/2006 10:15:41 PM , Rating: 1

Create Forests-more trees,dont cut the existing ones.
Let the tree population explode like china's human population,then you will not have sand/dust....
Those who have been to Beijing know -what are their pollution levels?
Lets expose the real problem of China-POLLUTION

RE: Dont create rain

By Le Québécois on 5/7/2006 12:37:48 AM , Rating: 3

Beijing 3 days - 2hours of blue sky.
Xian 1 day - none.
Zhengzhou 12 days - 1 day of blue sky and one day where the smog was so intense that there was fog in my hotel room.
Tianjin 5 days - none.

That's about the amount of time I saw a blue sky in my 21 days trip to china. The rest of the time it was gray...but it never rained, not a single hours.

So that's about the level of polution I saw when I went to China.

But to explain the whole sand storm thing, it has nothing to do with polution. It's related to the Gobi Desert. It's been like this every spring in China for millennium and I doubt it will stop any time soon.

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RE: Dont create rain

By Vanderpool on 5/7/2006 5:26:25 AM , Rating: 2

Try to visit southern China during April next time. :P

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RE: Dont create rain

By Le Québécois on 5/7/2006 4:26:11 PM , Rating: 2

Why April?

I was there in may/june. Granted, center China, not south.

I'll sure go back in China some day, it was awesome. But why the south? Even hoter, no thx.

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rain at a price

By koomo on 5/6/2006 5:45:25 PM , Rating: 2

Doubtful it will ever be used in the States for anything but emergency purposes, since "creating" rain in one area will be robbing the opportunities that other areas would have for it.

Maybe we'll have some interesting interstate or international disputes arising from this one day.

RE: rain at a price

By irev210 on 5/6/2006 5:52:34 PM , Rating: 2

exactly, you are just robbing someone else of the rain. Thats why people dont like it, you are messing with the balance of nature.

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RE: rain at a price

By AaronAxvig on 5/6/2006 7:45:54 PM , Rating: 3

Yep, it's been done in North Dakota to stop hail. However, people got mad because of the changed distribution of rainfall.

In fact, there is a whole company dedicated to this and related areas: http://www.weathermod.com/

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Old news...

By AppaYipYip on 5/6/2006 3:47:32 PM , Rating: 2

the United States Goverment and Military have been able to do this for about 60 years now. It is especially useful during military conflicts to slow the movement of enemy troops and/or stop them in their tracks.

RE: Old news...

By rudy on 5/7/2006 2:03:58 AM , Rating: 2

Yeah I think the point of the news was just cause news was slow but seeding clouds is nothing new.

it was done in vietnam then by the US military to try and wash out and slow the weapon flow of the north, then after that it was declared a war crime to alter weather while fighting a war. Apparently it has been brought up in the last decade.

Also the military back in the 50s i think tried to do a massive seed on a hurricane to weaken it, it ended up making a odd turn and going right over a city, and causing lots of damage so they decided to not try that one again.

And it is still done for droughts and so on. But as stated it is controversial, probably why this is news some people in other countries are not happy the chinese are doing this.

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