Singing in the rain

Melbourne-based Southern Hydro Partnership signed its first precipitation hedgelast year – a landmark deal that paved the way for a number of other contractsto protect itself from the risk of low rainfall. Paul Lyon reports

Last month, Chinese meteorological officials crossed swords. Scientists indrought-ridden Zhoukou accused their counterparts in Pingdingshan of intercepting “their” cloudsby firing rockets filled with various substances into the clouds to make themshed rain. But while the concept of cloud-seeding is a tried and tested, if inefficient,technique for making rain, Australian-based Southern Hydro Partnership preferredto tackle low rainfall by implementing a weather risk management programme