2008 Beijing Olympics Organizers to Control the Rain

Filed in archive Outdoor News on July 18, 2007

You have to hand it to the Chinese organizers of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. First, they cracked down on spitting, smoking in public, the homeless, and is even encouraging residents to work on their behavior. Now, they are putting the kibosh on rain.

In an effort to ensure more sunshine at the Olympics, Beijing weatherman are going to fire rockets in the sky to break up rain clouds. The 2008 Summer Games are turning out to be memorable. A year before it begins!

Zheng Guoguang, head of China's Meteorological Administration, said practice drills were ready to begin, the state-run China daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Zheng said the drills will simulate what will take place when the Olympics begin on Aug. 8, 2008. He said summer provided the last chance for meteorologists to practice under similar weather conditions.

Chinese officials have said historical records show there's a 50 percent chance of rain for the opening ceremony - and the same probability of rain during the closing ceremony.

Last month, a top-ranking weather official acknowledged that seeding clouds to produce rain - and dispersing rainmaking clouds - was immature technology.

"Dispersal is more difficult than rainfall enhancement," said Wang Yubin, assistant chief engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau. "In rainfall dispersal, we are still in the experimental stage but we are continuing our efforts."

Source