China plans to stop weather from raining on Olympic parade

Chinese meteorologists say they have had some success with experiments to try to guarantee that the opening of the Olympic Games in August is rain-free.
There has been much interest in China's attempt to reduce pollution ahead of the Olympic Games - but that is just one area of intense activity.There is also a team of scientists working on reducing rainfall, to try to ensure that the Games' Opening, on August 8, goes as smoothly as possible.
At a news conference, Beijing Meteorological Bureau deputy chief Wang Jian Jie announced that the work is beginning to pay off.
"Since 2006, we've been doing some experiments using seeding to reduce rain precipitation," he said.
"We've been comparing results and they have improved."

The scientists explained that, depending on the temperature, they have been seeding clouds with liquid nitrogen or silver iodide, to try and curb rainfall.

Unconvinced

Climatology and water resources expert, Professor Roger Stone from the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), says while the work sounds interesting, the international scientific community will not be convinced until detailed results are published.
"I was in Beijing one year before the Olympics are due to start this year, and sure enough, Beijing was hit by particularly intense thunderstorms and what we call strong convective activity," he said.
"I can see there would be some interest in reducing that type of storm activity, because that could indeed have some impact on the running of the games.
Professor Stone says there have been some scientific advances in using silver iodide, salt and other particles to enhance rainfall.
"That work has at long last started to appear in the international scientific journals," he said.

"But to be honest, I'm not aware of the scientific validity of turning it the other way around, although I could see there may be processes that could be put in place to reduce precipitation in some circumstances.
"But by jingo, you'd have to get the exact and precise circumstances in place for this to be effective."