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With reservoirs running dry and the country’s largest lake turning into a cracked salt bed, Iran is now trying to manufacture the one thing it desperately lacks: rain.
Authorities launched cloud-seeding flights over the Urmia Lake basin on Saturday, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. The method, essentially spraying tiny chemical particles like silver or potassium iodide into clouds to trigger rainfall, will continue across East and West Azerbaijan in the coming days.
Lake Urmia, once a vast inland sea, is now almost gone.
The operation comes as Iran faces its worst drought in 50 years. Rainfall has plunged 89% below the long-term average, meteorologists say, leaving dams at single-digit capacity and pushing the country toward crisis mode.
President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that if the skies don’t open soon, Tehran may face water rationing, and, in extreme scenarios, evacuations from parts of the capital.
“We are currently experiencing the driest autumn the country has seen in 50 years,” Iran’s weather service said.
Officials are also preparing fines for households and businesses that exceed water-use limits, as the country scrambles to protect what’s left of its supply.
On Friday, hundreds gathered at a Tehran mosque to pray for rain. By Saturday, a few signs of relief appeared: scattered showers in the west and even snowfall at a ski resort north of the capital, the first of the year.
Still, with dams in provinces like Tehran, East and West Azerbaijan, and Markazi described as being in a “worrying state,” authorities say these small weather bursts won’t come close to reversing the damage.
Cloud seeding isn’t new, the UAE uses it frequently, and Cyprus has debated similar measures amid its own water shortages, but experts caution that the technology is no miracle solution.
The downsides of cloud seeding:
- It only works if clouds already exist, it can’t create rain out of thin air.
- Results are inconsistent, and scientists still debate how much extra rainfall it actually produces.
- Chemical concerns persist, including the long-term environmental impact of repeated silver iodide use.
- It can shift rainfall patterns, potentially reducing rainfall in nearby regions.
*Source: BBC
