China lets it snow, lets it snow, lets it snow

China took credit today for the first snowfall of the winter in Beijing, saying it fired sticks of chemicals into the sky to seed clouds in a bid to end a persistent drought.

Snow fell in the capital this morning, dusting the gabled roofs of the ancient alleyways and settling briefly, only the second "precipitation" this winter following artificially induced rain on Thursday, Xinhua news agency said.

"But the rain was not enough to end the lingering drought," it added.

Zhang Qiang, deputy director of the Beijing Weather Modification Command Centre, was quoted as saying it had fired 426 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide to seed the clouds from 28 "weather rocket launch bases" in the city.

Beijing is enduring its longest drought in 38 years, according to weather bureau records, going without rain since October 24.