When the weather doesn’t cooperate, China flexes its muscles. In the face of one of the worst droughts in its history, the world’s second largest economy is trying to stem the rain by shooting into the clouds, reports American media CNN.
Poetically dubbed “cloud seeding,” this technique consists of shooting sticks of silver iodide, a compound said to help create rain, from planes or cannons on the ground.
These sticks, in this case the size of a cigarette, are catapulted into existing clouds to help form ice crystals, making moisture content harder and more likely to be released, CNN reports.
“Cloud seeding,” used in China since 1940, is said to have been used during the 2008 Olympics to clean the skies over Beijing, and can also be used to knock down snow or mitigate hail.
But today that technique is reaching its limits: cloud cover over the Yangtze River – completely dry – is too thin to bring rain, and authorities have been forced to halt weather adjustment programs.
150,000 inhabitants lack water
This important river for the Asian giant crosses the country from east to west, passing through the Hubei province in the center of the country and the city of Wuhan before emptying into the China Sea on the Shanghai plain. As in certain regions of France, the drought and lack of rainfall for more than two months have significantly lowered the level of the river and part of the population would face water shortages.
According to CNN, more than 150,000 residents of Hubei province would face difficulties in accessing drinking water and nearly 400,000 ha of crops would suffer.
The heat also forced authorities in southwestern Sichuan province, home to around 84 million people and a major industrial hub, to order all factories to close for six days this week to prevent a food shortage.
According to the National Climate Center, this heatwave, the longest since records began in 1961, could get even worse in the coming days.