The earliest snowfall to blanket Beijing in 22 years fell on November 1. It was followed 10 days later by another period of frozen precipitation, accompanied by freak thunder and lightning.

Beyond the typical wintry inconveniences such snowfall can cause, the China Daily reports that nearly half of the city’s annual allotment of snow-removal chemicals has already been used to clear the roadways.

The paper cited an unnamed official who said the Beijing Weather Modification Office had artificially induced both snowstorms by seeding clouds with chemicals.

Such methods have been used for several years to alleviate a protracted drought across North China. They were also recently used to prevent rainfall during the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Communist revolution.

But such heavy and frequent snow so early in winter has snarled traffic and forced the capital's international airport to halt operations. The resulting inconvenience has triggered complaints from the public, according to the newspaper.

Xiao Gang, a professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the paper: "We should not depend too much on artificial measures to get rain or snow, because there are too many uncertainties up in the sky."

Photo: He Junchang