China to step artificial rain making to beat dry weather

"Some 560,000 manipulations of the weather have been conducted since 2002 using rockets and projectiles carrying dry ice or silver iodide," state-run China Daily quoted China Meteorological Administration as saying.

"That helped release 489.7 billion tons of rain, about 12 times the water storage of the Three Gorges Project and saved about 66 billion yuan (USD 10.4 billion) in economic losses," it said.

Considering its success, more rain-making technology will be deployed in the future, it said, adding that artificial precipitation would be increased by 3 to 5 per cent in the next five years, Zheng Guoguang, administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, said.

He said rainmaking technology in China lags behind the leading countries in the field by between 15 to 45 per cent, depending on the region.

The arsenal targeting the weather includes more than 7,000 rocket launchers, at least 50 planes and nearly 7,000 guns, he said.