Environment

Artificial snow in China closes 12 highways

by amyjudd | February 20, 2009 at 11:02 am

1478 views | 47 Recommendations | 10 comments

Twelve major roads in Beijing were closed yesterday due to heavy snow falling on the capital. However, this snow was artificial as the clouds above were seeded with chemicals to make it snow.

The northern province of Hebei, which is hit hardest by the drought had most of their highways closed in the hope that the moisture would help the incredibly dry land.

"The snow has brought moisture to the soil, which may help end the drought," Guo Yingchun, a senior engineer of the provincial meteorological observatory, was quoted as saying.

She said that 313 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide were fired into the clouds from Wednesday night to Thursday morning, "a procedure that made the snow a lot heavier."

This is the longest drought in 38 years, but it is expected to keep 'snowing' for a little longer now.

3 See all footage | View Slideshow

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Geneva B

at 11:25 on February 20th, 2009

This could have an opposite effect: Dr. Irving Langmuir, high priest of scientific rainmaking, sounded a solemn warning last week: those who sow too many rainstorms may reap nothing but droughts. Speaking at the School of Mines in drought-threatened New Mexico, Langmuir denounced the commercial rainmakers, many of them woefully ignorant of the art, who are seeding the atmosphere with silver iodide throughout the dry Southwest. "Some of them," he said, "are using hundreds of thousands of times too much. No more than one milligram [.000035 oz] of silver iodide should be used for every cubic mile of air." Source

lefty_liberated

at 14:11 on February 20th, 2009

This is freaky.

car1edb

at 14:50 on February 20th, 2009

Thanks for sharing.

Who'd have thought all this weather control stuff worked eh....do you think its safe?

car1edb

at 15:52 on February 20th, 2009

I think they know quite alot... they've been "playing" for years n years now.

"Project Stormfury was used to redirect and weaken hurricanes for a twenty-year period starting in the 1960s, said Smith, who added that China and especially Russia have advanced weather modification methods. He speculated that Saddam Hussein may have paid Russia to brew up the severe sandstorm that took place at the beginning of Gulf War II"

Interesting "pinch of salt" reading.

Paschen

at 17:43 on February 20th, 2009

Now we caused Climate changes with our pollution and will use more pollution to counter the climate changes? Hum.

cn.huang.Adrian

at 18:53 on February 20th, 2009

Snow in Dingfuzhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing

cn.huang.Adrian has contributed a photo to this story.

Barbara McPherson

at 19:51 on February 20th, 2009

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature. Sometimes there is a backlash.

Barry Artiste

at 10:07 on February 21st, 2009

wonder if Whistler will grab that idea for 2010?

harringtola

at 08:45 on February 23rd, 2009

Wow. Hopefully this will fix their problem. It is hard to know when this is probably one of the few to try to end a drought in this way. The obvious question would be, with this process being available for so long why is it not used more frequently. If the answer is adverse effects they might get unintended consequences.