Updated on
Summary The first snow has fallen at last on February 9 in Central China's drought-stricken wheat-growing province of Henan. Most areas in the province have received 2-3mm of snow.
But the snow is too little to ease the drought situation, according to the local office of the Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. According to Chief weather Reporter Wang Xinmin of Henan Meteorological Observatory, up to 5 pm on Wednesday, apart from Xinyang which had a little rain, most counties in Henan Province received their first snow this winter. Two counties of Xinyang and Tongbai had the biggest precipitation of 11mm while other regions had only 2-3mm. The snow and rain stopped on Thursday morning. Though limited in the snowfall, it has put the related units and farmers on the alert to seize the time to irrigate their wheat fields, said agricultural experts of the province. Shanxi province seeded the clouds to stimulate more snowfalls. An estimated 2-5mm of snow has fallen on wheat-growing areas in the southern and middle parts of the province. The snowfall is not effective enough to ease the drought situation, according to local agricultural department. Chinas winter wheat growing regions have been in the grip of severe drought since October last year. The drought is likely to last into the whole of the spring season.
