Karachi, Friday 26th: Lately, death has taken its toll in the province of Sindh. Sinch last week over two thousand people have died due to heat strokes or droughts, and load shedding only adds to the misery. The heat of June has been growing unbearable for the public, with no rain and less winds. Thus the government of Pakistan and the NDMA(Natural Disaster Management Authority) have decided to try out cloud seeding for the first time in Pakistan. But what is cloud seeding?
Cloud Seeding is also known as chemical rain, rainmaking, or artificial precipitation. Cloud Seeding is away to produce artificial rain, mostly done to avoid droughts, increase reservoir irrigation water, increase water supply capacity or to increase water levels for power generation.
Cloud Seeding is done by using air planes or rockets which sow into the clouds catalysts such as dry ice, silver iodide and salt powder. These catalysts induce nucleation and what little water is in the air condenses and crystallises to form ice. How the process actually works after that is hard to tell as it is impossible to carry out a controlled weather experiment. But here is an explanation:
click on the picture to see and read fully
Rainmaking is not chemical engineering instead it is a form of weather modification used only to change local weather.
Cloud seeding was introduced by Vincent J. Schaefer in 1946. It has since been noted successful in, Australia, France, U.S, U.A.E, Spain and the AbuDhabi desserts.
However, cloud seeding has its own side effects, it has been discovered that artificial rain water can damage buildings and historical monuments also stone structures made up of limestone or marble. It also increases the corrosion rate of metals. It also causes eye and skin diseases amongst both humans and animals.
Although the government of Pakistan has confirmed that if this weather continues (meteriologists report the weather is to stay this way for about a month) cloud seeding will have to take place, the meteriologists say that for cloud seeding "thicker" or "warmer" clouds are needed. Thus the process has been delayed because the "right type of clouds" have not yet arrived. Well, all good things to those who wait.
Lets all raise our hands in prayer and pray for a large ammount of natural rain, because no matter how effective cloud seeding is its side effects are very harmful.
Very well written! :) I really enjoyed reading your's and Ayan's articles about Cloud seeding. It is very informative, and the picture you've added really explains the whole thing very well. :D I especially agree with the last paragraph. Yes, we are praying for rain. 8D Keep posting!
ReplyDeleteThank you Fatima, by the way did you hear about the growing unnatural heat in France and Britian, in fact the whole of Europe is blistering hot! I really hope Kenza's ok.
Delete(sorry for interrupting!) Yeah, it's been really unnaturally hot here too! Apparently, London today received the highest temperature ever recorded there in history. And it's really unusual - the UK never normally gets this hot. But I can't say much, because the temperature in Karachi must be awful! D:
DeleteNo I didn't know about the heatwave in Europe, I just got to know about it. The whole world's climate is changing... I guess it's because of Global warming and all that cimate change. IT's just too bad. And you know, I got to know, that because of it, in winters, there can be a cold wave as well.
DeleteRight now, the temperature is a lot better than what it was about a couple of weeks ago, during the heatwave. The wind is blowing too, thank God! :D
You have a heatwave too??? But it's 26 degrees over there, right??? That's very pleasant weather for us! We are normally 10 degrees hotter than you. But thankfully, our monsoon season has begun! But that doesn't mean it's going to rain, it's just expected. Though we do have GREAT winds!
DeleteYes, the weather is a lot better here, though the atmosphere is still very humid. It has rained in many areas of Pakistan except Karachi.Rain is expected in Karachi, (that's where I live) but of course whenever the MET office reports that its going to rain in Karachi it doesn't. Anyways lets hope for the best and about UK's weather was all over our news on 1st July.
Delete(Fatima) I've never heard of a cold wave before! :O How interesing!
Delete(Zainab) We did, but it's long gone now. XD Where I was it wasn't too bad, but it was severe over in London - over 35 degrees I think? But in Karachi, it must've been devastating. O.O Yeah 26 is more on the good side for us here too. :) That's just like in Morocco! Dang, it IS really hot in Karachi then! :O That's great! I hope it's a lot better now. :3
(Azka) Aw, that's bad luck - about the rain. D: (To think we really take rain for granted in the UK - it rains too much here. XD) Yeah! You can't trust the MET office here either! Fairly recently, they said there was going to be a really bad storm and heavy rainfall all day, but it turned out to be sunny and warm throughout the whole day. Everyone was like... whaat? XD Oh right! Our heat wave wasn't as hot as yours though.
Very Informative...
ReplyDeleteAyan has posted something about Artificial Rain too-Hey, did your mom assign you both to do that??????
:D Yes Zainab our mother assigned us that but when we started researching the topic really seemed interesting. I think you should try it out as well.
DeleteNo way! Ha ha Ha. :D
DeleteOh, and btw, you guys coming tommorow?
This was on the news here too - about Karachi!! O.O I was so shocked and hoping everything was fine with you. Are the temperatures still as severe over where you are? Hope you're all okay!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is a really intriguing article, Azka! The Cloud Seeding process sounds interesting. I hope you'll get some rain soon! :)
Oh it was? Well, it was terrible during those days, we kept spraying our faces with cold water and taking showers to keep cool. Atleast, we were at home, so it wasn't so bad. We are fine, thanks for asking. :) The people who really got affected were the workers who were out and working in the heat. And the small houses which are built close together and heat up very much, were the ones who got high fever and that way, many people even died. :( It was all in the news. The biggest mistake was that people were completely unprepared for it. If they had known, and if the media had presented ways to protect ourselves from the heat, maybe it wouldn't have been so terrible.
DeleteIt hasn't rained yet but the wind has started bowing very well, and the clouds are giving some shade, so it's a lot better. :)
Yes Kenza, everthing's better over here now though rain is still needed, people are still dieing of heat strokes, there is no space in the hospitals or the morgue or the grave yards. The clouds are providing some shade and people are working a lot to help each other. Only last week my aunt went (while fasting) to take some refreshments to those whose relatives were affected by these heat strokes or other problems. Lets all pray for eachothers countries and eachothers community.
DeleteP.S. I completely agree with Fatima, the meteriologists must have had some sort of clue about what was to come they should have foretold it. But lets play our part in this time of crisis and help the people around us.
(Fatima) Yeah it was! It must've been awful! >.< Thank goodness! :O Aw, that's sad. D: Yeah, you're right! It would've helped prevent a lot of deaths too.
DeleteThat's good news - has it improved even more now?
(Azka) Oh okay! I'm glad you're well. :D Oh, that's no good. :( She did? That's really kind of her! :) And fasting!
<3
You're right! They should've been able to see some sort of sign I'm sure... I mean, that temperature, surely!
I hope everything's a lot better over there now. :D
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