China controls the weather and makes a snow storm to end a drought

November 2, 7:45 AMBaltimore Weather ExaminerTony Pann

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Snow in Beijing, China on November 1 2009.  AP Photo

Beijing had their earliest snow in over a decade, with up to 20 inches bringing down many trees still covered with leaves.  But does it count?  It wasn't entirely natural.  With strong winds from the north holding temperatures at 29F (-2C), it looked like snow, and had to be shoveled or bulldozed.  But the real story was how it happened.  When they say the state controls everything, they really mean it. China controls the weather too. While in the grip of a severe drought, The Beijing Weather Modification Bureau seeded the clouds with 500 cigarette sized sticks of silver iodide from 28 rocket launch sites around the city, to induce precipitation. It had not rained in 100 days over the city, but on the down side 12 area highways were closed.  See more images in the slide show below.

This is part of The Beijing Meteorological Bureau, and is believed to be the world's largest effort to control the weather.  It employs 37,000 people, and has a history of trying to end hailstorms or make rain to end droughts.  Most recently, the tried to keep the 2008 Olympics rain free by seeding clouds headed towards the city and forcing them to drop their rain before arriving at Beijing.

The Beijing Weather Modification Bureau has had modest success, but what do you think?  I'd love to give teachers and kids a snow day, but artificially altering the weather changes the natural order of things.  Releasing energy in the form of rain or snow, before the atmosphere is ready, could have implications down the road.  This follows the chaos theory how small changes in one area can have big results somewhere else.  So, if a Butterfly flaps it's wings in Beijing, and then it rains in New York, then what happens when China makes it snow? Oh, that's right, the New York Yankees win the World Series.   See, everything is connected.  At least you now know who to blame.