BEIJING RESIDENTS awoke to a city blanketed in snow yesterday after city authorities blasted the clouds with weather modifying chemicals to bring some much-needed precipitation to the capital and surrounding areas.
Beijing has not had any substantial precipitation for 108 days, breaking a 60-year record for latest snowfall – it is extremely rare for the first snow to come after the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year was on February 3rd. Conditions on Wednesday night were very favourable for cloud seeding, with relatively high humidity combining with a cold front over the area.
Authorities fired capsules of silver iodide, the compound used in cloud seeding, into the clouds above the capital to help expedite the snow.
While it was welcome in parched Beijing, it also caused major traffic snarl-ups around the city, although because most people are still out of the city for the Chinese New Year holiday, it could have been worse. The drought affecting the capital needs more than just one night of snow to solve the long-term issues.
“The snow will be of little help addressing the drought in Beijing,” said Sun Jisong, chief meteorologist at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
In November 2009, early snowfall brought on by cloud seeding caused havoc and irritated residents, but this time it was welcome.
Cloud seeding has been carried out in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in recent days to generate snow. China plans to spend €730 million to alleviate its worst drought in six decades – a long dry spell in the world’s largest wheat-growing region that has raised the commodity’s global price.
The extreme shortage of precipitation has prompted the United Nations food agency to warn of pressure on wheat prices in the world’s largest wheat grower.
The drought is adding to concerns around the world about global food prices, which surged to record highs in January, and are expected to continue to rise in the months ahead.
China has said the drought is mainly affecting the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, which grow more than two-thirds of the country’s wheat.
The drought, which began in October, has hit the southwest parts of Shandong hardest, putting further pressure on politically sensitive food prices that have been surging for months.
In a sign of how seriously the problem is being taken, both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen paid separate visits to stricken areas last week and called for “all-out efforts” to fight the drought.
It looks set to spread across the country, according to the National Meteorological Centre.