Xinhua reports today that a rainstorm did, as feared, threaten last night's opening ceremony--and that the Beijing Meteorological Bureau's weather modifiers did, as planned, take steps to suppress the rain:
"We fired a total of 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city between 4:00 p.m. and 11:39 pm on Friday, which successfully intercepted a stretch of rain belt from moving towards the stadium," said Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau (BMB).
Next step: unsuppress the rain to wash the choking filth out of here.
My story about China's weather-modification program and the plan to prevent rain at the Olympics is in the April/May issue of Plenty magazine. Through bronchitis and an international phone line, I talked to New Hampshire Public Radio about it.
Meanwhile, local officials announced that the rain-makers were behind the first big rainfall of the spring. The story says Beijing and Hebei used artillery shells and rockets to seed the clouds, which (if correct) would be a departure--the head of Beijing's Weather Modification Office told me last year that the artillery doesn't go into service till May 1. Before that, they're supposed to use the less dramatic silver-iodide smoker stove.
My story about China's weather-modification program and the plan to prevent rain at the Olympics is in the April/May issue of Plenty magazine. Through bronchitis and an international phone line, I talked to New Hampshire Public Radio about it. 
