Lately, the Chinese National Meteorological Bureau is reporting on efforts to use the technique to fight forest fires in Northern China .

Put into practice as recently as last week, the process involves using aircraft, artillery shells, and rockets to seed clouds with chemicals like silver iodide and dry ice. The chemicals encourage rainfall by introducing particles into clouds that attract water vapour. That forms droplets that fall as rain...assuming it works.

Hey, that's our rain!

The practice is not without controversy - neighbouring regions in China have been known to feud over the "theft" of rainfall as various villages seed the same skies, seeking much-needed rain.

The Chinese government reported that three large forest fires had been extinguished late last week, in part using cloud-seeding that caused rains to fall and assist the firefighting efforts. Earlier this year, the same techniques were used to relieve a drought and reduce dust in the capital city of Beijing.

The government of China spends more than $50 million a year on the weather modification program, and the latest five-year plan calls for the creation of 48 to 60 billion cubic metres of artificial rain each year.

Between 2001 and 2005, cloud-seeding aircraft made 2,840 flights along with the launch of nearly 2,000 "rain-making" rocket and artillery shells.

Ensuring sunny skies for the Olympics?

With China hosting the Olympics in 2008, some scientists are beginning to wonder if the Chinese will attempt to control the weather in Beijing during the Summer Games. So far, the majority of China's efforts have been limited to creating rain, not preventing it. However, meteorologists in China claimed they've influenced the weather towards the sunny end of the spectrum on occasion.