As the reservoirs in northern Malaysia ran dry, scientists enlisted the national air force and took to the skies. Their mission? To make it rain.
It sounds like science fiction, but the southeast Asian country has been honing its “cloud-seeding” technique – where experts spray tiny particles into clouds to trigger rainfall – for decades to divert monsoons, tackle water shortages and clear pollution.
And after a three-year hiatus, the flights are back as the government prepares for the hot and dry conditions set to be unleashed across the region by the El Niño phenomenon, an unusual warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean that affects seasonal weather across the globe.
“We’ve carried out six operations so far this year,” Ambun Dindang, a senior director in the Malaysian Meteorological Department, told the Telegraph. “I’ve been supervising ground operations, but previously I’ve been in the air. It’s a bumpy ride.”
Once the plane reaches at least 5,000 feet, it heads inside the clouds. The pilot opens the rear door and officers wearing harnesses spray the rain-making concoction into the atmosphere.
Experts use either a silver iodine based solution – this encourages ice crystals to form, which grow and eventually fall as raindrops – or, more commonly in Malaysia, calcium chloride. This effectively replicates the role of sea salt; by absorbing and catching the moisture, the mixture stimulates water droplets to grow in size and ultimately burst.
“We’ve taken a natural process seen over the ocean and accelerated it,” said Mr Dindang. “We normally go into the cloud two or three times to spray the special solution into the cloud. Sometimes the process happens very fast, and we’re still inside when it starts to rain.”
So far this year, the focus has been on Penang, in northwest Malaysia. The reservoirs there, which are critical for the country’s semiconductor industry, had already dropped to around 50 per cent of capacity in May – in the first five months of the year, less than half as much rain fell compared to the same period last year.
The cloud-seeding operation has helped ease the situation, said Mr Dindang, by pushing rain to fall over the reservoirs’ catchment areas.
Indeed, throughout the region, the water levels of more than 70 dams are now close to capacity, according to Charles Santiago, chairman of the National Water Services Commission.
Yet such an approach does not offer a “permanent solution”, as it’s a weather dependent response that amplifies or redirects – rather than creates – rain.
‘Exceptionally strong’ El Niño
Still, ahead of the looming El Niño, every little helps. Southeast Asia has already been battered by a prolonged heat wave this year – temperatures topped 50 degrees celsius in parts of Thailand in April, and records were also broken in countries including Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar. Rainfall has also been lower than usual.
The trend is set to get more intense. An El Niño, which occurs every three to seven years, is declared when sea temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean rise to 0.5°C above the long-term average. This drives surface air temperatures and pressure to change throughout the equator, which alters seasonal weather trends across both hemispheres.
In southeast Asia, the pattern is associated with reduced rainfall and soaring temperatures. Governments are increasingly concerned about the potential ramifications – including reduced agricultural yields, forest fires, dwindling water supplies and strained power grids as people ramp up their air conditioning to stay cool.
There is good reason to be concerned. In 2015, a particularly bad El Niño year, the phenomenon contributed to one of the worst droughts in two decades across southeast Asia. It affected more than 70 per cent of the land area and 325 million, according to the UN, and caused “devastating” disruption to livelihoods, food security and health.
Meanwhile in 2019, a moderate year, devastating forest fires and haze linked to the dry weather cost Indonesia alone an estimated $5.2 billion, according to the World Bank.
“The El Niño in 2015/2016 was exceptionally strong,” Clare Nullis, a spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency, told the Telegraph – and that was without the temperatures rising to levels not seen in the modern record-keeping era last week.
“At this stage we don’t have an indication as to whether the developing El Niño will be as strong as that, but it is obviously taking place against a backdrop of rising temperatures,” Ms Nullis said.
Malaysia is not the only country getting ready. Across the region some countries have asked farmers to prioritise water supplies, told industrial estates to increase their ability to store rainwater, and introduced restrictions on electricity usage.
In Singapore, the meteorological service has urged people to ensure they have ample face masks and working air purifiers in case forest fires ignite in the region and bring with it a choking haze, causing respiratory issues – as happened in 2015.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the state utility company Electricity Vietnam has declared a “national electricity-saving movement”, asking households and the government to reduce their usage and for businesses to limit use of heavy machinery during peak hours.
“There is quite a lot that can be done to prepare and some countries in the region are doing this,” added Ms Nullis, pointing to Indonesia, where “climate field schools” are helping farmers to develop shock resilient cropping practices.
She also urged health systems to prepare for an increase in heat and air-quality related issues, as opposed to the floods and water borne diseases which arrive with the La Niña – the opposite of the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Although cloud-seeding has brought some relief to Malaysia, there are still fears that it won’t be enough to avert a crisis.
Making it rain can help reduce a severe situation, Mr Dindang said, but it is expensive and dependent on the right weather conditions and cloud formations. Rainfall can not be made from nothing.
“From time to time, there will be rain, and then cloud-seeding can offer a temporary relief to ease a critical situation,” he said. “But the biggest concern for the government will be freshwater supply … because we have experienced this sort of water shortage before during the El Niño. Tackling this will require many different approaches at once.”
This article was written by Global Health Security Correspondent in in Bangkok and Sarah Newey from The Telegraph and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.