Let It Rain, But Not On The Olympics

We have attempted to affect the weather for the longest time! Native Americans tried to produce precipitation in times of need, what's more for many centuries it was believed that the people of Finland were able to change the climate. The Vikings refused to allow Finnish sailors on their raids for fear that they would churn up a marine storm. Finns were time after time refused passage on ships well into the 20th Century for these same superstitious reasons.

Perhaps the earliest, also most commonly used,  method of weather control is the lightning conductor (or lightning rod for my American friends). These conductors are usually made of copper or aluminium and are placed strategically on the high points of trees, buildings and other structures in a network to channel possible lightning strikes safely to the globe. And very successful they have been too.

Way back in the 1950's Wilhelm Reich attempted to influence streams of cosmic rays with a device known as a 'Cloudbuster' which, he felt, would cause rain also thus dissipate the clouds. Any fans of Kate Bush out there will know that this inspired her hit 'Cloudbusting'

Cloud seeding is an often used technique for producing rain. This involves releasing silver iodide or dry ice into clouds, by aeroplane or by small rockets or from a ground generator, and increasing cloud clustering on these particles to increase the overall rainfall. Additionally while there are some businesses dedicated exclusively to the practise of cloud seeding, the measurable outcomes are somewhat limited. There have been experiments that show that cloud seeding does indeed alter a clouds structure and size, nevertheless there is little evidence that this actually converts to greater rainfall at ground level. Alternative elements, including salt, are being tested as they are providing more promising results.

From 1962 to 1983 the US government ran project Stormfury. This was an attempt to lessen the destructive power of tropical cyclones And hurricanes by flying aircraft into them and then releasing silver iodide. The expectation was that this would disrupt the inner structure of the storm and thereby lessen its impact. Nonetheless over the 20 years of experimentation no conclusive proof was located that the hurricanes that did dissipate, would not have dissipated of their own accord. Although the final Project Stormfury flight was flown in 1971 it wasn't until 1983 that the project was officially closed.

There are plans being undertaken for the future adjustment of our weather systems. For example an idea has been proposed to gently heat portions of a cyclone with microwaves from space to help steer it away from a conceivably destructive land fall.  The implications are mammoth. How would this effect the natural ecosystem? Does one country have the right to reduce or alter the rainfall of another? What's more the idea of microwaves being fired deep into a cyclone from space fills me with a certain amount of trepidation.

Whatever will happen remains to be seen, but in the here and now, the Chinese authorities have 30 aircraft, 4,000 rocket launchers additionally 7,000 anti-aircraft guns ready and waiting to shoot various chemicals into the clouds to reduce rainfall for the 2008 Olympics. And good luck with that!

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