Fighting with the weather

There's a war going on. While you've been going about your daily life, operations have been ongoing for months. In central districts of Beijing, silver iodide rods are being burned, and in rural districts and in Hebei province rockets are being launched as old anti-aircraft guns fire shells filled with chemical mixtures into the sky.

All of this is an effort by Beijing's weather authorities to alleviate the worst winter drought the city has seen in 60 years.

Cloud seeding using silver iodide is just one weapon used to increase the city's water supply. The most famous is the colossal South-to-North Water Diversion Project, although the waters from China's esteemed "mother" rivers haven't arrived yet. In the meantime city officials are focusing on things like cloud seeding to bring a little moisture to a parched Beijing.