Indian Government: Pray for Rain

The monsoon creates thunderstorms and rain erratically. A storm can dump an inch or more of rain in one location and leave another area, just a few miles away, dry. Credit: Dreamstime

From rain dances to cloud seeding to outright prayer, humans have a long history of trying anything to get the sky to open up.

In India, the monsoon is late arriving this year. So it's blistering hot. The government is now funding a 3-year experiment aimed at seeding clouds to control the timing of the rains, which typically come between June and September.

In case that doesn't work, and other rain-making efforts suggest it won't, "The government of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has ordered all churches, mosques and Hindu temples to pray for rain," the Times reports.

(Monsoon is a seasonal shift of the wind that can bring torrential summer downpours. It has a long history of being spotty. Mexico has a serious monsoon too, one that creeps just barely into the American Southwest, typically bringing a precious few inches each year to an otherwise parched desert.)