China's central and eastern provinces used artificial means to boost precipitation and relieve the ongoing drought, government sources said Monday.

Aircraft, artillery and rockets were used in the operations in areas covering 10,000 square kilometers in central China's Hubei Province, said an official of the provincial meteorology bureau.

More rainfall enhancement efforts will be made in the next three days in Hubei as the weather will be favorable for similar operations after 61 counties and cities in the province reported the least rainfall in the same period in history, the official said.

In north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 110 million yuan (about 17 million U.S. dollars) has been allocated to purchase five aircraft to assist in increasing rainfall since 2009, said Shen Qingrong, deputy director of an office in charge of weather modification.

An operation to enhance rainfall was carried out Sunday in Baiyinxile Pasture in Xilingol League in the region. The pasture, occupying one-fifth of the regional area, is the world's four largest grasslands.

Artificial raining operation was also implemented in China's eastern Jiangxi Province, northeastern Liaoning Province and northwestern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which largely alleviated the drought beginning in April, local government sources said.

However, drought is still plaguing many provinces across China while natural rains eased the drought in other provinces.

Nearly 25 million mu (about 1.7 million hectare) of fields were reported to be hit by drought Monday in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which produced more than 50 billion kilograms of crops last year.

At the same time, the first rain of this year finally arrived in north China's Hebei Province late Saturday after continuous artificial raining operations were conducted.

Rains also arrived in northwest China's Qinghai Province late Saturday and in east China's Shandong Province on Sunday.

Cold air is anticipated in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and will influence the country from the west to the east as temperatures will turn lower during the next three days, according to the China Meteorological Administration.