11-04-2009, 09:35 AM
I have heard this before. I think they also did similar things in Beijing during the summer olympics to prevent rain.As to environmental impact...I think liquid nitrogen would not be a big issue, cement particles can be tricky but will probably not be too damaging (depending on what they put in the cement), but silver particles shoud be a big nono. Also you mess up the local climate in the city area, but it's messed up already anyway...it could get interesting though: snow reflects what little sunlight they have, while a snow-free city absorbs the sunlight, making it more of a local hotspot than it already is, so that it possibly attracts more precipitation (rising air and all that)