《TAIPEI TIMES》 Cloud seeding conducted to alleviate drought

/ Staff writer, with CNA

The Water Resources Agency and the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology conducted cloud seeding amid a cold front over the weekend in an effort to alleviate a drought.

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Pyrotechnic flares were used over the Shihmen Reservoir （石門水庫） in Taoyuan and the Baoshan Second Reservoir （寶二水庫） in Hsinchu County on Saturday afternoon to induce rain, while ground-based cloud seeding generators were used on Saturday evening and yesterday near the two reservoirs, as well as the Mingde （明德） and Liyutan （鯉魚潭） reservoirs in Miaoli County, the agency said.

Areas north of Tainan, as well as eastern Taiwan and mountainous areas in the south, are likely to see rain amid the cold front, it added.

Water shortages continue to worsen in parts of Taiwan amid a severe drought, especially in the south, where reservoirs have received little to no rain since September last year.

The south’s two main reservoirs, Zengwen （曾文） and Nanhua （南化）, have water storage rates of just 11 percent and 38 percent respectively, while the level at the Shihmen Reservoir is about 53 percent, the agency said.

Water conservation alerts in some municipalities were this month raised from “yellow” to “orange” under Taiwan’s four-color water alert system, meaning industrial water users would see a reduction in the amount of water supplied to them and households would face reduced water pressure.

Similar water controls would be employed in Kaohsiung starting on Thursday, the agency said.

Meanwhile, snow briefly fell on Yushan （玉山） yesterday, the latest date that snow has fallen on the mountain since records began in 1943, the Central Weather Bureau said.

Ice pellets were seen on the 3,952m peak at 6:40am, before snow fell between 7:05am and 7:15am, the bureau said.

Weather forecasters said that intensifying seasonal winds and moisture moving in from China created favorable conditions for snowfall on Yushan, where the mercury dropped to minus-0.2°C early yesterday.

No snow fell on Taiwan’s highest mountain during the most recent December-to-February winter season for the first time since records began 80 years ago.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES