“They create hurricanes via cloud seeding” and “direct them where they want the Hurricane to go!”
Wind-driven rain soaks a street in downtown Tampa, Fla., Oct. 9, 2024, as Hurricane Milton passes through. (AP)
No, cloud seeding wasn’t used to create Hurricane Milton
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
- Cloud seeding, used to increase rain or snow in drought-stricken areas by injecting silver iodide into clouds, is the most common weather modification program in use in the U.S.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration once used cloud seeding in a decadeslong project to try to lessen the intensity of hurricanes, but the project was ended in 1983 after mixed results.
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There are no weather modification projects that can create or modify hurricanes, weather officials and experts said.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Claims that unknown figures, often governments, can somehow create and control the weather are not new. We debunked such claims after a deadly Turkey earthquake in 2023, after Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022 and after a Texas winter storm in 2021.
There are real weather modification programs, the most common of which is cloud seeding — a technique to increase rainfall or snow in drought-stricken regions by shooting silver iodide into clouds. But none can create or control a hurricane; such technology doesn’t exist, officials and experts say.
They Create Hurricanes via cloud seeding, electro magnetic pulses then radiate and ionize them so they can intensify them and direct them where they want the Hurricane to go!” the post’s caption said.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Claims that unknown figures, often governments, can somehow create and control the weather are not new. We debunked such claims after a deadly Turkey earthquake in 2023, after Hurricane Ian hit Florida in 2022 and after a Texas winter storm in 2021.
There are real weather modification programs, the most common of which is cloud seeding — a technique to increase rainfall or snow in drought-stricken regions by shooting silver iodide into clouds. But none can create or control a hurricane; such technology doesn’t exist, officials and experts say.
(Screenshot from Facebook)
Helene left a trail of destruction in the southwest U.S. after landing in Florida Sept. 26 and Milton formed Oct. 5 in the Gulf of Mexico, quickly intensifying into a powerful hurricane.
