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Beijing Artificially Creates Snowfall To Counteract Drought
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by amyellensoden | November 2, 2009 at 04:35 pm
151 views | 16 Recommendations | 4 comments
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Meteorologists in Beijing have artificially created snowfall by cloud-seeding to deal with drought conditions. The 11 hour snowfall took place yesterday as scientists saw an opportunity for artifical precipitation to be created. This marks the earliest snowfall in Beijing since 1987.
With forecasts for precipitation and a sharp drop in temperatures at the weekend, the meteorologists saw their chance. From 8pm on Saturday they fired 186 silver iodide capsules into clouds heavy with snow to help the precipitation. The result was snow that fell for 11 hours from the early hours of Sunday until mid-afternoon.
The cloud-seeding process exceeded the normal snowfall amount by 16 tonnes, causing huge airport delays and flight cancellations. This years Beijing snowfall comes six weeks prior to last year's first snowfall. The snow has mostly cleared as of today and will not return until the naturally occurring snowfalls that will take place later in the year.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 20:59 on November 2nd, 2009
I wonder how this concept of playing with the environment affects the rest of us.
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large file Sharing (not verified)at 21:36 on November 2nd, 2009
It is good to read your blog...I enjoy learning about artificial snow fall..You also give good good information about cloud-seeding process...Thanks.
at 23:35 on November 2nd, 2009
One more example of playing with the nature, hope nature will not play with so called humans.
at 13:45 on November 3rd, 2009
I've heard bad things about cloud seeding and that it's bad for the environment to create snow like this, but I need to do more research as to why.