Olympic Weather Control
In the years approaching the 2008 Games, the Chinese government formed a Weather Modification office to address weather and pollution concerns. The goal: Create optimum conditions by making it rain when they want and keeping it away when they don’t.
When the country first started fooling with Mother Nature, back in 1958, the primary focus was farm regions, where drought lingered and crops suffered. But over the decades the techniques they developed have been used to fight fires, prevent hailstorms, replenish riverheads and reservoirs, sweep away pollution and ease a heat wave.
Does that mean the grey haze over George Hincapie and other Olympic cyclists or the rain that fell on beach volleyball competitors were signs of China’s weather control success? When you consider the clear skies over the Opening ceremony…maybe.
The process of modifying weather via cloud seeding has gotten a lot of press over the years, as well as a lot of flack. Some critics believe it doesn’t work, and in reality there isn’t a way to know for sure whether it did. Even the most experienced meteorologists can’t be certain when it will rain—or how much will fall when it does.
Cloud seeding is basically the practice of dispersing substances into the air that act as cloud condensation or ice nuclei to concentrate moisture in hopes of increasing precipitation or breaking up unwanted conditions such as fog, hail, or in the case of Beijing, smog. This can be done using planes, but China uses anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers. In fact, often the ones loading the pellets of silver iodide into the guns are the farmers in need of rain. The hope is to release the moisture from the clouds so the skies will rain when you need it, or be dry when fair weather is desired.
China has made quite an investment into this practice—to the tune of 37,000 staff members and an annual budget of about $100 million. But even the weather modifiers themselves admit that they cannot be sure of how successful their attempts have been.
While the US, which began exploring cloud seeding in the ‘40s, has eased its weather modification efforts, other countries—Russia and Israel included—continue to develop programs.
The Chinese Weather Modification Department points to the fact that reservoirs in Beijing have increased 10-13 percent as proof of some success. Perhaps that’s enough to stand behind for pursuing this goal in the future. And maybe, just maybe the rain was supposed to fall on the beach volleyball court, so the hazy skies could clear a bit for the next cycling stage, not to mention the marathon and the Closing ceremonies. Maybe they will succeed in making sure the weather works for them. Or it could all be bunk.
For more on how cloud seeding works, and China’s Olympic efforts, check out: http://science.howstuffworks.com/cloud-seeding.htm
February 11th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Oh! What a super web site. I obtained right here by case, via my friend’s web page. I like your texts. They may be extraordinarily interesting. And I’m pondering if I could use a part of the texts in my term peper. Please write me back again if I can. Thanks.
November 23rd, 2011 at 7:11 am
It never ceases to surprize me that, with a bit of additional browsing internet, you’ll be able to uncover a few of the most unique blogs. It is frustrating that a great deal more blogs like this, arent listed at the top when I appear with yahoo on the net, I’ve added you to my bookmarks, I also have a pal, that may actually get pleasure from this page, so ill send them, a link to your web site, as well. I’m certain they are going to genuinely adore it.