Posted on 04/18/2006 9:42:49 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIJING - Beijing will use artificial rainmaking to clear the air after a choking dust storm coated China's capital and beyond with yellow grit, prompting a health warning to keep children indoors, state media said
If oil prices surge to record highs, what affect will this have on the US dollar?
The huge storm blew dust far beyond China's borders, blanketing South Korea and reaching Tokyo.
The storm, reportedly the worst in at least five years, hit Beijing overnight Sunday, turning the sky yellow and forcing residents to dust off and hose down cars and buildings.
Hospitals reported a jump in cases of breathing problems, state television said.
The government was preparing to seed clouds to make rain to clear the air, state TV said, citing the Central Meteorological Bureau. It did not elaborate, and the bureau refused to release more information.
Storms carrying chalky dust from the north China plain hit Beijing every spring, but newspapers said this week's was the heaviest since at least 2001. The Beijing Daily Messenger said 300,000 tons of sand and dust were dumped on the city Monday.
That was "definitely one of the most serious pollution days in Beijing," weather forecaster Yang Keming said, according to the China Daily newspaper. "Small children had better stay at home during such days."
The dust reached Tokyo on Tuesday, the first time that has happened in six years, said Naoko Takashina of Japan's Meteorological Agency. Dust from China was found in more than 50 locations throughout the country, she said.
The Japanese agency warned of reduced visibility but did not say any health dangers were expected.
In South Korea, a light layer of dust blanketed the country, but no ill effects were reported. Rain was forecast overnight Tuesday, and the weather bureau said it should clear the air.
The dust storms are expected to last through at least Wednesday in Beijing, neighboring Tianjin and a swath of north China stretching from Jilin province in the northeast through Inner Mongolia to Xinjiang in the desert northwest, the China Daily and other media said.
That region is home to hundreds of millions of people.
More storms were expected later in the week in Xinjiang and other parts of the northwest, according to news reports.
China's government has been replanting "green belts" of trees throughout the north in an effort to trap the dust after decades when the storms worsened amid heavy tree-cutting.
Last week, the western Xinjiang region was hit by its worst sandstorm in decades, which killed one person and left thousands stranded after sand covered railways and high winds smashed train and car windows.
Here's hoping to get rid of the dust, they don't get floods in their place.
How long until this dust cloud blows up over the Sierras in California?
With this much particulate matter up in the atmosphere, how much is the heating of the earth's surface by incidental energy from the sun going to be reduced?
China actually is becoming a ecological disaster.
Northern China was bracing for up to two more days of choking sandstorms after an estimated 336,000 tons of dust fell on the capital Beijing in a single day, state press reported.(AFP/Peter Parks)
not sure on the temp effect, should make for some nice sunsets here tho
Wherever communists have power, the ecology suffers. USSR, Eastern Europe, China, etc.
The West is far superior when it comes to taking care of the natural world. But the Watermelons (Green on outside, Red on inside) don't want people to know that.
Answers to prayers.
Yeah, maybe they can use some of their "scalar interferometry beams" to make it rain. But gee, couldn't they have used those to prevent the dust storm in the first place? Guess not.
It's like asking why the psychic got hit by a car.
They'll probably be selling that stuff in Home Depot in a couple weeks.
/enviro nut
Sounds like Lubbock. The air there in Springtime ain't thick enough to farm, but it doesn't miss by much.
I thought the idea of cloud seeding was to introduce particulate matter (perhaps a bit of salt) in order to give the water vapor something to condense on. It would seem they are already up to their asses in particulate matter. If there was any water up there to fall as rain, it would have fallen by now.
Maybe they could seed the clouds with, say, some water. That might make it rain.
If my science is lacking, someone help me out here. Otherwise, China needs to get its head out of, uh, the clouds.
Normal West Texas day...dusty!
Here's hoping they get floods, and still have dust.
Who knows, a few of the jobs sent to China might return to the U.S.
I can dream, can't I?
We sent that much to Texas before breakfast last Saturday.
uhhhh... not to make you look like a fool, but it worked.
Whether cloud-seeding actually works has been the subject of debate in the scientific community. In 2003, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences questioned the science behind it as "too weak."
I just don't believe it, and there is no way to know if it would have rained without the silver iodide they shot into the air. And four-tenths of an inch of rain wouldn't make much of a difference in the big picture.
They claim to have done it many times. China claims a lot of things.
Thanks for pinging me to that link, though. I find the topic very interesting.
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