Games official unaware of rain-busting plan
Games organisers say they have far-reaching plans to guard against foul weather at next year's Beijing Olympics.
But they deny they will chemically seed clouds before they get to the capital - despite the government weather bureau announcing plans to shoot rain clouds out of the sky to ensure the Games remain dry.
In what appeared to be a worrying communication breakdown between the government and Olympic organisers, Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games executive vice-director responsible for test events, Yang Shuan, said the committee was not aware of widely reported seeding plans.
'I am not sure where the media heard about this contingency plan. We haven't done any work on that,' Mr Yang said on Wednesday.
But state media and the international press have for the past 19 months widely reported the drastic measures planned to ensure key events like the opening ceremony remain rain-free.
The Beijing municipal weather bureau has been repeatedly quoted in the media, describing how a battery of antiquated anti-aircraft guns stationed around the capital and a squadron of weather-busting aircraft will blast chemically armed missiles into the sky to force weather fronts to prematurely rain.
'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,' Nian Donglian, head meteorologist with the bureau, told the media in June last year.
The Communist Party English language mouthpiece China Daily carried the reports, detailing how Beijing would stave off downpours by using an arsenal of rockets and artillery shells loaded with silver iodide or dry ice to drain rain clouds.
In August this year, it reported how the country had held 'a rain reduction drill to ensure that the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games next year will not be interrupted by rain'.
It said three planes carrying 30 technicians flew for about three hours above Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, spreading silver iodide and 2.8 tonnes of diatomite into a cold front which threatened rain for the capital.
Mr Yang said Bocog had other weather contingency plans in place to ensure safety for everyone at both the test events and the Olympics.
The national meteorological bureau has promised 'extreme accuracy' for weather forecasts during the Games, Xinhua reported yesterday.
