Reaching for the sky to open the heavens

BEIJING - Local meteorological departments have resorted to weather manipulation to relieve the drought in major wheat-growing areas in central and northern provinces.

Cloud seeding has been carried out in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in recent days to generate snow.

Wang Jianzhong, information office director of the Henan provincial meteorological bureau, told China Daily that they succeeded in generating precipitation by shooting snow-inducing silver iodide into the sky on Wednesday morning. As a result, Henan saw its first snow this winter in the afternoon, after 116 days without any snow or rain.