Many efforts are being made to relieve the drought. In the worst-hit provinces, meteorological authorities have been creating precipitation by seeding clouds.

Central Henan Province is one of the major wheat-growing regions of China. But this year, production has been low due to the prolonged severe drought.

The provincial weather bureau took advantage of grey skies to pump silver iodide into the clouds, creating snow for 108 counties.

Huang Yimei, Henan Weather Bureau, said, "Thanks to the air and field operations, the province has seen snowfall. The highest was 23 millimeters and the average was 5.5 millimeters. The total precipitation reached nearly a billion tons."

Since the start of the winter season, northern China's winter wheat regions have seen mass precipitation only twice.

Experts at the National Meteorological Center found it offered at least some relief.

Mao Liuxi, Director of Ecological & Agricultural Meteorology, said, "The chart on the left shows the moisture level of the soil at 10 centimeter deep, and the chart on the right is of the soil at 20 centimeters deep. The yellow color means light drought, and the red color means severe drought. We can see the surface layer of soil is drier than the deep layers. After the snowfall, we can see a certain level of mitigation of the drought condition of the surface layer of soil."

But more is needed. And cloud-seeding seems the best short-term solution.

The central government has earmarked 7.5 million yuan for local meteorological departments to put toward creating precipitation.