Waiting for the rain

What to do when rain is much needed, but not falling? In traditional societies, people would pray the gods. In progress- and technology-minded contemporary China, the answer is to turn to man’s astuteness and self create what the sky isn’t providing. Both methods have their shortcomings and limitations.

In fighting southwestern China’s current drought, the local meteorological departments all rely on their rain provoking rockets and on the army’s planes. This is no miracle solution. It can only help bringing down the water from already existing clouds or expand the scope and volume of expected rainfalls. It means waiting for days for the right conditions.

A specialist from the “municipal command center for man-made weather impacting” (市人工影响天气指挥中心) of the city of Chongqing (重庆) says: “We have been waiting for that group of clouds for half a month. The amount of water currently provided to Chongqing by the sky is too miserable and not enough to alleviate the serious drought. We can only rely on our own methods and bring down the most possible rain from the clouds.”

The rain provoking method consists of injecting silver iodide into the clouds. This induces chemical reactions, which result, if the conditions are right, in rainfalls. The method is fairly easy, cheap and without side effects.

In all of the affected areas, the provinces of Yunnan (云南), Sichuan (四川), Guizhou (贵州) and the city of Chongqing, “man made” rain has been falling these days.

Chinese sources: 重庆千枚炮弹打下及时雨; 我国空军增调14架运输机执行人工增雨作业