(Last Updated on January 23, 2016 by Editor)
ZIMBABWE – Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services Department has started a countrywide cloud-seeding operation, the Harare-based News reported, citing Tich Zinyemba, a forecaster with the agency.
More than 95% of the Southern African country has received less than three-quarters of its average rainfall this season, Mr Zinyemba told the newspaper. Rains typically fall between mid-November to the end of April in Zimbabwe.
Two aircraft from the meteorologial department will seed clouds with silver iodide, a water-attracting chemical that forms ice crystals. The crystals increase in size and weight until gravity forces them to fall as rain.
Zimbabwe, along with much of Southern Africa, is experiencing the worst drought in about two decades.