China has succeeded in creating another man-made snowfall in
Tibet Autonomous Region to ease drought, local authorities said on
Tuesday.
Technicians took advantage of suitable weather conditions to
carry out the artificial snowfall in the regional capital of Lhasa
from 2:02 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. Saturday, said Gaisang Puncog, head of
the Tibet Regional Weather Modification Center.
The precipitation was measured at 0.2 mm in downtown Lhasa and
the accumulated snow on the nearby mountains reached 2 cm after the
artificial snowfall, he said.
"It played an active role in increasing soil moisture, making
the air cleaner and reducing the occurrences of respiratory
diseases," he said. "The snowfall and following temperature drop
are good for the growth of winter crops."
Technicians with the weather modification authorities fired six
rocket shells containing 10 cigarette-sized sticks of silver iodide
totaling 1,395 grams over the city's skies in the artificial
snowfall operation, he added.
This operation came after another man-made snowfall launched in
Ngari Prefecture in western Tibet on Jan. 9.
Lhasa and neighboring areas have reported a lack of snowfall
this winter with higher temperatures than normal years.
In April last year, China succeeded in creating artificial snow
for the first time in Nagqu County at an altitude of about 4,500
meters in northern Tibet.
(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)