Beijing has revealed how it will control the weather during the 2008 Olympic Games - by blasting clouds out of the sky.
A battery of antiquated ack-ack anti-aircraft guns stationed around the capital will fire shells filled with chemicals to guard against foul weather. 'We are Beijing's first line of defence for the Olympics. In 2008, we'll shoot any bad weather out of the sky to keep the sun shining on the games,' said Nian Donglian, head meteorologist with the Beijing municipal weather bureau.
Up to 20 of the guns will blast shells packed with silver iodide into the sky. 'When they explode, they scatter the crystals into the clouds, where they attract water and become heavy and fall as raindrops,' said Ms Nian.
The process is better known as cloud seeding and has been used by the army in and around the dusty, parched environs of Beijing for around 33 years to produce much-needed rain for farmers and wash the layers of dust away.
But during the Games the method will be used to eliminate any threat from downpours. 'We sometimes turn a cloudy day into a dry and sunny one by shooting the clouds less intensively than when we make rain - this makes them dissolve. We can even make it snow - but that's still undergoing testing,' added Ms Nian, who says the method is 80 per cent accurate.
'It depends on the thickness and the position of the clouds. Before we fire the ack-ack gun we have to call the airport to check there are no planes in that part of the sky - the last thing we want to do is shoot one down.'