China employs artificial means to create rains in drought-hit provinces

New Delhi, Feb 9 (ANI): China has employed artificial means to create rains in at least seven provinces to alleviate a rare drought that has hit the areas.

Reports from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) indicate that local weather-control officials had fired a total of 2,392 artillery shells and launched 409 rockets in 127 cloud-seeding operations by the night of February 7th.

Rain-enhancing practices were adopted in such drought-stricken provincial regions as Henan, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hubei and Anhui, the report said.

In central China's Henan, artificial precipitation brought on average 0.5 millimeters of rainfall to 17 counties and cities.

The province, a major wheat-producing area, is suffering the worst drought in half a century.

Parts of the artificially moistened provinces and north China's Hebei Province saw one to five millimeters of rain from Saturday to Sunday morning, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) reported.

Parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui and Hubei saw thick clouds on Feb 8th, whuich are favorable for more rain-inducing measures, said the CMA.

China has declared the highest level of emergency in response to the drought that began to hit most parts of northern China in November.

The foul weather had affected 161 million mu (10.7 million hectares) of crops, 4.37 million people and 2.1 million heads of livestock across the country. (ANI)