Weather modification staff in Henan Province prepare to create artificial rainfall in June

(Beijing) –  Will it be clear skies or gray skies today? If a new program announced last November comes into place, the question may be more of a choice on the part of the government.

Already in place in thousands of counties across China are airplanes equipped with rocket-launchers and stockpiles of chemicals dedicated to inducing rainfall. Cloud-seeding programs have been in use in China for decades, but in May, the head of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) provided details on the new weather modification program, adding that the country would seek to increase precipitation by 3 to 5 percent in the next five years through cloud-seeding.