Beijing Gets Clobbered With Man-Made Snow Storm

Posted by Editor on 11/06/2009

On November 2nd, the city of Beijing was subjected to an unseasonal snow storm - one that lasted for 11 hours, blanketing the entire city with 16 million tons of snow and causing road and air traffic to come to a complete standstill, for hours.

However, this storm, the earliest, the city has seen in more than a decade, was not a freak act of nature nor a result of global warming. Instead, it was man-made, created by the Beijing Weather Modification Agency -  a branch of the Chinese weather department that has been trying to perfect the technique of manipulating the weather in China for a number of years.

The agency, which claims credit for the perfect weather during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, created this particular storm to alleviate the severe drought situation, that is currently facing Northern China.

The techinque, known as 'cloud seeding', involves injecting clouds with chemicals like dry ice or silver iodide, which cause the air to cool down drastically and precipitate as rain or snow. For the recent snow storm, the agency fired 186 chemical-filled rockets.

While Beijing residents were pre-warned to expect a light snow storm, the onslaught of the white powder, as well as, the freezing temperatures, caught everybody by surprise!

As global warming changes weather patterns all over the world, there has been a growing interest in adopting these kind of strategies on a more wider scale. In spring of 2010, a group of the world's leading weather experts plan to get together in California, to discuss how to deploy something like this on a much larger scale.

However, there are also a lot of people who believe that manipulating weather may distort things even more, and lead to bigger weather-related issues. What do you think? Be sure to let us know by adding your comment below.

sources:guardian.co.uk, wikipedia.org, ifrica.com, dailymail.co.uk

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  1. NUMBER 1 JUSTIN BIEBER FAN about 1 hour later:
    IS THAT USUAL IN BEIGING
  2. Cat72 about 18 hours later:
    That is very odd
  3. 1997girl about 23 hours later:
    That's really cool, but I just don't think it's good to mess with nature.
  4. a about 24 hours later:
    11 hours!!!!???? that is amazing! I can't believe it!
  5. aaa 1 day later:
    that is cool!
  6. makenna 2 days later:
    wooooooooooo!
  7. Alana 2 days later:
    I hate that they're messing with nature!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  8. Roopa 3 days later:
    Great to know this news dude(dudet).
  9. 1999kid 3 days later:
    awesome
  10. 1995 4 days later:
    oh yeah :P
  11. 1989 4 days later:
    hei
  12. FIONA 5 days later:
    I lived there and that is pretty typical
  13. phat 6 days later:
    that is against human nature. they shouldn't do that
  14. phat 6 days later:
    i think it is very cool that they can do that though
  15. phat 6 days later:
    it is a crime against nature
  16. The Slopper 6 days later:
    wow that is so amazing asnd i wouldn't want to live there
  17. yopunk 6 days later:
    was up punk
  18. Ally 6 days later:
    16 BILLION TONS!!!!???? THAT IS A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  19. KK 6 days later:
    HIIIIIIIIIII! EMMA
  20. homslice 6 days later:
    yo homey
  21. brrendan 6 days later:
    he looks really weird but he is a perfect match for the other green person her name is bob
  22. homslice 6 days later:
    im bored
  23. homslice 6 days later:
    who is bored
  24. Ryan 6 days later:
    hi people
  25. homslice 6 days later:
    whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo is bored
  26. watupgirl 25 days later:
    i have ben to bejing
  27. lena about 1 month later:
    im learning about china in histery. ill tell her(my teacher) about wat happend. she will be interested.
  28. cooldude about 1 month later:
    peeple reely shudn't du that
  29. cooldude about 1 month later:
    cooldddd. brrrrrr
  30. cooldude about 1 month later:
    let it snow let it snow
  31. cooldude28 about 1 month later:
    i just did the math, and beijing got hit with 64000000000lbs of sno!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  32. cooldude28 about 1 month later:
    i can sing my abc's........... ABC! i'm done!
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