Editing Weather modification (section)

==History==
A popular belief in Northern Europe was that shooting prevents hail, which thus caused many agricultural towns to fire cannons without ammunition. Veterans of the [[Seven Years' War]], [[Napoleonic wars]], and the [[American Civil War]] reported that rain fell after every large battle. After their stories were collected in ''War and Weather'', the [[United States Department of War]] in the late 19th century purchased $9,000 of gunpowder and explosives to detonate them in Texas, in hopes of condensing [[water vapor]] into [[rain]]. The results of the test, supervised by [[Robert Dyrenforth]], were inconclusive.<ref name="ley196102">{{Cite magazine
 |last=Ley
 |first=Willy
 |date=February 1961
 |title=Let's Do Something About the Weather
 |department=For Your Information
 |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v19n03_1961-02#page/n36/mode/1up 
 |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction
 |pages=72–84
}}</ref>

[[Wilhelm Reich]] performed [[cloudbuster|cloudbusting]] experiments in the 1950s, the results of which are controversial and were not widely accepted by mainstream science.

In November 1954 the Thailand Royal Rainmaking Project (Thai: โครงการฝนหลวง) was initiated by King [[Bhumibol Adulyadej]]. He discovered that many areas faced the problem of drought. Over 82 percent of Thai agricultural land relied on rainfall. Thai farmers were not able to grow crops for lack of water. The royal rainmaking project debuted on 20 July 1969 at his behest, when the first rainmaking attempt was made at Khao Yai National Park. Dry ice flakes were scattered over clouds. Reportedly, some rainfall resulted. In 1971, the government established the Artificial Rainmaking Research and Development Project within the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.<ref>[[Royal Rainmaking Project]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=August 2019}}

In January 2011, several newspapers and magazines, including the UK's ''Sunday Times'' and ''Arabian Business'', reported that scientists backed by the government of [[Abu Dhabi]], the capital of the [[United Arab Emirates]], had created over 50 artificial rainstorms between July and August 2010 near [[Al Ain]], a city which lies close to the country's border with [[Oman]] and is the second-largest city in the [[Abu Dhabi Emirate]]. The artificial rainstorms were said to have sometimes caused hail, gales and thunderstorms, baffling local residents.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.arabianbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038.html |title=Abu Dhabi-backed scientists create fake rainstorms in $11m project |last=Leigh|first=Karen |date=January 3, 2011 |work=Arabian Business |access-date=May 25, 2018 |archive-date=January 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107192913/http://www.arabianbusiness.com/abu-dhabi-backed-scientists-create-fake-rainstorms-in-11m-project-371038.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the run up to the [[2008 Summer Olympics|2008 Beijing Olympic Games]], the Chinese Government said they could control precipitation to some extent and that the Games would not be hampered by bad weather conditions. For this purpose they established a government office called the Beijing Weather Modification Office, which is under the national weather control office.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/01/24/olympics-china-weather-control/control olympics-china-weather-control/control], www.washingtonpost.com{{dead link|date=June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.cma.gov.cn/2011xwzx/2011xqxxw/2011xqxyw/202112/t20211221_589354.html | title=中国气象局人工影响天气中心正式启动-中国气象局政府门户网站  | trans-title= |website=www.cma.gov.cn}}</ref>