Blog note. Jesus indicated that ‘fearful sights’ (various natural disasters) would occur leading up to the time known as the Tribulation and Great Tribulation (a combined seven year period of great destruction on earth). Although these types of things have occurred in the past for centuries and thousands of years, they could be identified as the ‘season of the times’ due to the ferociousness of these events. They would be occurring in greater intensity, severity, frequency, size, duration, scope … just like the pains that a woman experiences in labor the farther along she is in the labor process. We are in the ‘season of the times’ that comes just before the seven (7) year Tribulation/Great Tribulation period
… And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. (Luke 21:11).
… And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; (Luke 21:25)
… Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken; (Luke 21:26)
… This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. (2 Timothy 3:1)
Jesus is giving a series of prophecies about what to look for as the age of grace comes to a close. These verses are several of many such prophecies from throughout the Bible. 2017 was the worst year in recorded history for the intensity, frequency, severity, duration and occurrence of a large number of severe natural disasters worldwide. Earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, torrential flooding, unprecedented wildfires in unusual places, devastating droughts, excessive/scorching heat setting records everywhere, record snowfalls in Europe and Russia. Snow in the Arabia. This list can go on. Most studied Eschatologists believe these ‘fearful sights’ and massive natural disasters are all part of the ‘CONVERGENCE’ of signs that this Biblical and prophetic age is closing. Most people who study prophecy are familiar with the routine reference(s) made that these things will be like a woman having labor pains, growing in intensity, frequency, size and duration.

Russia engineers climate to induce rain as wildfires rage across Siberia

Alec Luhn. The Telegraph•August 1, 2019

Russian authorities are seeding clouds to try to induce rain over an epidemic of forest fires in Siberia.

The operations come after Donald Trump offered Vladimir Putin help fighting the blazes.

An Antonov An-26 turboprop flew to northern Irkutsk region on Thursday to fire exploding shells of silver iodide into “clouds suitable for artificial rain induction operations,” the state aerial forest conservation brigade said. Fires in three districts are located under rain-bearing clouds, it said.

After refuelling, the plane will fly into the Krasnoyarsk region to seed clouds over fires in a district there.

Silver iodide shells have been shot over some 100 fires since the start of July, resulting in medium and heavy rains in two out of every three attempts, the brigade claimed. It has also deployed 500 firefighters to assist locals in four regions.

Russia is in the grips of one of the worst fire seasons in recent years, with more than 12,000 square miles burning as of late July. The sun has turned red from smoke in some cities, and dangerous levels of air pollution have been reported in Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk. Russia doesn’t extinguish most fires unless they threaten populated areas.

Some of these fires were among the 100-some long-lasting wildfires observed in June in the Arctic, a region normally too cold and wet for widespread burning.

Mr Trump told Mr Putin in a phone call on Wednesday that the United States was ready to assist Russia in fighting wildfires, according to the Kremlin. While Mr Putin merely said he would keep it in mind, he took the offer as a sign bilateral relations could be improved, it said.

Although cloud seeding has been used for decades in the United States and other countries to try to increase snowfall at ski resorts or pre-empt rainfall during events like the Beijing Olympics, its efficacy continues to be debated.

With a crystal structure resembling ice, silver iodide causes water particles in clouds to freeze and grow heavier, as the brother of novelist Kurt Vonnegut discovered in the 1940s. Dry ice, table salt and propane are also dropped on or fired into clouds to encourage rain.

During the Vietnam War, the United States seeded clouds over the Ho Chi Minh trail in an attempt to “make mud not war” and prolong the monsoon season.

In response to Russia’s ongoing fire crisis, shamans of Siberia’s indigenous peoples have been conducting rituals to summon rain.

Meanwhile, the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed credit for summoning rain in the Krasnoyarsk region. Churches there began praying for rain on July 21, which resulted in precipitation and a decrease in smoke over towns, the Krasnoyarsk bishopric claimed this week.

“The weather changed, and now a decision has been made to conduct prayers in all churches of the Krasnoyarsk region to preserve this holy phenomenon,” a church spokesman told state news agency TASS.