2008 Olympic Military Weather Modification Program

In a small village located outside of Beijing lives a widow known as Chi. Three months before the 2008 Olympics, if you were driving past her flat you probably would not even notice it. Now if you drove past it you would see an anti-aircraft rocket launcher decorating the yard. Miss Chi is one of many voluntary participants in the 2008 Olympic Military Weather Modification Program. The program's goal is to stop all rain from coming down on Beijing during the Olympics. The 2008 Beijing Organising Committee promised no rain on the opening parade by firing over 1100 rockets from 21 sites around Beijing to disperse storm clouds. They kept their word. For the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony they worked to scatter the rainclouds before they hit the stadium. Using rockets fired from over 21 sites in the Beijing, a powerful rain belt was attacked, which triggered premature showers before they reached the capital. Baoding city, south-west of Beijing, received about 4 inches of precipitation but in the capital the rain held off.

To someone unfamiliar to weather modification, it sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. But it has been around since the 1940's. It was developed by US chemist Vincent Schaefer. It works by firing Silver Iodide into clouds which cause water to freeze into rain or snow. China has been manipulating weather for years. China's weather modification technology has received most of its attention during Chinese public holidays when they try to keep it from raining nationwide. China's Weather Modification Office is a government department that employs over 35,000 people. They have an arsenal of over 7,000 cannons, 5,000 rocket launchers, 30 planes and a budget of over $US260m.

Unlike science fiction, this is not fiction. It is a common practice around the world. It is used in especially dry parts of the world year round. It is used to attack rain, snow, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, hurricanes and local storms. Statistics and research studying about its effectiveness have shown it to be a very worthy investment. Due to the necessity of rain, especially in famine weary countries the United Nations has banned large scale weather modification. Despite its history and well documented success, the widely accepted opinion of western scientists and meteorologists is that weather modification is limited or non-existent. Weather modification has been a topic in many books and movies. There have been many fears, rumours and conspiracy theories based upon it. In western countries it is largely viewed with suspicion and not taken seriously by the scientific community. But there is a growing consensus in favor of the technology including numerous corporations who provide weather modification services. The 2008 Olympics have helped bring this technology to the mainstream but it may take decades before the western world accepts it enough to turn money into researching it. Until then, China and emerging countries will continue to have the upper hand on this technology.