Ukraine to use rockets to disperse Euro clouds
Reuters - Monday 28 May 2012, 13:33
Ukraine is planning to fire rockets
to break up rain clouds if bad weather threatens to upset football
matches during next month's Euro 2012 tournament, a government
official said on Monday.
"Our [missile] batteries are being prepared for dispersing
rain clouds," the official, who declined to be named, told
Reuters.
On May 9 when Ukraine celebrated World War Two Victory Day,
the airforce sent up an Antonov-30 cargo transporter to disperse
a build-up of rain cloud by spraying it with chemicals, though
no rockets were fired.
For the moment though, weather forecasters are predicting
only dry, warm weather for at least the first two European
Championship games to be played in Ukraine.
"We expect there will be no rain in Ukraine on June 9. The
temperature is likely to be between 20 and 24 Celsius degrees
(68 to 75 Fahrenheit)," Anatoly Prokopenko, deputy head of
Ukraine's State Weather Forecast Centre, told Reuters.
Ukraine is co-hosting the tournament with Poland from June
8-July 1.