Iran begins cloud seeding amid historic drought

Iran has sprayed clouds with chemicals to induce rain, in an attempt to combat the country's worst drought in decades.

Known as cloud-seeding, the process was conducted over the Urmia lake basin on Saturday, IRNA reported.

Urmia is Iran's largest lake, but has largely dried out leaving a vast salt bed. Further operations will be carried out in other drought-hit provinces, the agency said.

Rainfall is at record lows and reservoirs are nearly empty. Last week Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that if there is not enough rainfall soon, Tehran's water supply could be rationed and people may be evacuated from the capital.

Cloud seeding involves injecting chemical salts including silver or potassium iodide into clouds via aircraft or through generators on the ground. Water vapour can then condense more easily and turn into rain.

Iran's meteorological organisation said rainfall had decreased by about 89% this year compared with the long-term average. Iran is currently experiencing the driest autumn the country has experienced in 50 years.