DUST STORM IN CHINA

China Using Artificial Rain to Clear Dust By JOE McDONALD,
Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 18, 3:17 PM ET

BEIJING - Beijing will use artificial rainmaking to clear the air after a choking dust storm coated China's capital and beyond with yellow grit, prompting a health warning to keep children indoors, state media said Tuesday. The huge storm blew dust far beyond China's borders, blanketing South Korea and reaching Tokyo. The storm, reportedly the worst in at least five years, hit Beijing overnight Sunday, turning the sky yellow and forcing residents to dust off and hose down cars and buildings.

Hospitals reported a jump in cases of breathing problems, state television said. The government was preparing to seed clouds to make rain to clear the air, state TV said, citing the Central Meteorological Bureau. It did not elaborate, and the bureau refused to release more information. Storms carrying chalky dust from the north China plain hit Beijing every spring, but newspapers said this week's was the heaviest since at least 2001. The Beijing Daily Messenger said 300,000 tons of sand and dust were dumped on the city Monday.

That was "definitely one of the most serious pollution days in Beijing," weather forecaster Yang Keming said, according to the China Daily newspaper. "Small children had better stay at home during such days. The dust reached Tokyo on Tuesday, the first time that has happened in six years, said Naoko Takashina of Japan's Meteorological Agency. Dust from China was found in more than 50 locations throughout the country, she said. The Japanese agency warned of reduced visibility but did not say any health dangers were expected.

In South Korea, a light layer of dust blanketed the country, but no ill effects were reported. Rain was forecast overnight Tuesday, and the weather bureau said it should clear the air. The dust storms are expected to last through at least Wednesday in Beijing, neighboring Tianjin and a swath of north China stretching from Jilin province in the northeast through Inner Mongolia to Xinjiang in the desert northwest, the China Daily and other media said. That region is home to hundreds of millions of people. More storms were expected later in the week in Xinjiang and other parts of the northwest, according to news reports.

China's government has been replanting "green belts" of trees throughout the north in an effort to trap the dust after decades when the storms worsened amid heavy tree-cutting. Last week, the western Xinjiang region was hit by its worst sandstorm in decades, which killed one person and left thousands stranded after sand covered railways and high winds smashed train and car windows.

Associated Press reporters Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo and Bo-mi Lim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.


Wildfire Season Could Be the Worst Ever
By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 18, 11:41 PM ET

WICHITA, Kan. - This year's wildfire season could be one of the worst ever, with 2.15 million acres already burned nationwide this spring — more than five times the average, fire officials said Tuesday. Fires have been especially bad in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska and New Mexico. Fire departments say they are straining under the load with little relief in sight from windy, dry conditions.

The acreage numbers, released Monday, count only fires reported to the National Interagency Fire Center as of April 13. They do not include the hundreds of grass fires that firefighters in beleaguered states have been too busy fighting to file all the paperwork on. It is rare we burn this many acres this early in the fire season," Ken Frederick, a spokesman for the fire center,
said. More than 30,665 major fires have been reported nationwide this year so far, compared with an average of 17,288 in the same period, the agency said. The total area burned is more than five times the average 380,048 acres. Fires have killed 18 people and destroyed more than 1,100 buildings this year.

Texas alone has fought 1.3 million acres of fires, and more than 115,082 acres have burned in Oklahoma, the agency said.Grass is so dry in some areas it ignites 50 feet in front of the flames just from the heat. Fires are jumping four-lane paved highways, and the flames spread so fast trucks going 30 mph cannot outrun them, he said. We are seeing stuff that hasn't happened in the last decade," said Jim Schmidt, an emergency management director in Kansas. "We are seeing cedar trees igniting 40 feet in front of our fire trucks — exploding with no moisture in it.
On the Net: National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/