Iranian authorities today resorted to weather modification techniques to induce rain, at a time when Iran is facing one of the worst droughts in decades, state media reported.
“A flight was carried out in the Lake Urmia basin for the first time in this hydrological year”, which begins in September, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday evening. The lake, the largest in Iran, located in the northwest of the country, has shrunk considerably due to the drought.
According to IRNA, other operations are planned in the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan.
These techniques involve spraying particles, including silver iodide, into cloud formations to cause rainfall.
Last year, Iran announced that it had developed its own technology in this matter.
Largely arid, the country has suffered for years from chronic droughts and heat waves, which are expected to worsen with climate change.
According to the IRNA news agency, Iran is experiencing its “driest autumn in 50 years”.
The national meteorological service, cited by the agency, reports that this year’s precipitation is 89% below the historical average.
On Saturday, however, IRNA reported the arrival of rain in several locations in the west and northwest of the country.
The local press released videos showing heavy rains in Ahvaz and Shushtar (southwest), as well as in Salmas and Urmia (northwest) and Abdanan (west).
In some areas, intense rain even caused flooding.
State media also showed the first snowfall in the Alborz mountains and the Tochal ski resort, located north of the capital.
According to local authorities, precipitation in the capital has never been so low in a century, and half of Iran’s provinces have not seen a drop of rain in months.
Water levels in the reservoirs that supply many provinces have reached historically low levels.
Earlier this month, President Massoud Pezeshkian warned that without rain before winter, Tehran could have to be evacuated.
The Government later clarified that its intention was to alert the population about the seriousness of the situation, and not to announce a concrete plan.
Other countries in the region, notably the United Arab Emirates, are also using these techniques to produce rain artificially.