Rain will continue in parts of major wheat-growing areas in China on Friday and bring further relief to regions hit hard amid the most severe drought in half a century, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) said.

Provinces including Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Jiangsu will see between 1 to 4 millimeters of rain. Two more periods of rain are expected in north China from Feb. 15 to Feb. 17 and around Feb. 21 respectively, which will help winter wheat grow, according to the NMC forecast.

Most parts in the country's northern wheat-growing regions had about 1mm of rain on Wednesday.

Beijing saw rain up to 11 millimeters by 5:00am Thursday with artificial rain stimulus measures, the first precipitation in the 110 days since October 24 last year.

"Large-scale irritation efforts combined with recent rainfalls have brought moderate relief to some drought-stricken areas. However, drought will last because of limited precipitation," said Lin Jian, chief weatherman with the NMC.

As of Feb. 12, farming land affected by drought totaled 270 million mu (18 million hectares). Areas of affected crops stood at 130 million mu. Both figures were down 4 million mu each compared with the previous day, according to statistics from the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

However, the number of people facing drinking water shortages climbed up from 4.65 million on Wednesday to 4.8 million on Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2009)