Be

China Makes Artificial Rain To Rinse Grime From Beijing

POSTED: 4:58 pm EDT May 5, 2006

BEIJING -- Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing's heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China's capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north.

Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

posted by ... @ 10:28 AM