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Experts say technology capable of creating hurricanes doesn't yet exist | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall
USA TODAY

The claim: Post implies Hurricane Hilary was caused by geoengineering

An Aug. 18 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows a man speaking about Hurricane Hilary in front of a weather forecast map.

"Is our weather being modified or is this 'climate change?'" the man asks.

He references patents for hurricane control, a website called Weather Modification Incorporated, a map on a website called Geoengineering Monitor and the National Weather Modification Policy Act of 1976 to back up his point.

Numerous commenters below the post agree with his implication that the hurricane was man-made.

"Easy, the climate is changing because someone is changing the climate," reads one comment.

The post garnered more than 11,000 likes in three days. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim is false. Geoengineering technology hasn't yet been developed that could create large-scale weather events like a hurricane, according to experts. The documents and websites referenced in the video aren't evidence of man-made hurricanes.

Geoengineering can't be used to control hurricanes

Hurricane Hilary was downgraded to a tropical storm before it swept through the Southwest region of the U.S. on Aug. 20, leaving thousands without power and causing flooding in several states.

As is typical when natural disasters like this occur, some social media users suspected the hurricane was a result of weather modification.

The man in the Instagram video references geoengineering, which is a type of large-scale intervention in the Earth's natural systems in an effort to counteract climate change, according to the University of Oxford.

There are two general types of geoengineering, the university explains on its website. Solar geoengineering aims to reflect a portion of the sun's energy into space to counteract increases in temperature, while carbon geoengineering aims to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Fact check:False claim geoengineering is behind climate change

But there's no technology that can control hurricanes, according to Simon Nicholson, director of American University’s Center for Environment, Community and Equity and co-director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy, and Alan Robock, a climate science professor at Rutgers University.

"There's no country running any kind of program that could have contributedto, let alone caused, any recent extreme weather events," Nicholson said in an email.

Robock agreed, saying there's no current program trying to control the climate besides unrelated cloud seeding, which is a weather modification technique that introduces ice nuclei into certain types of subfreezing clouds to improve their ability to produce rain or snow, according to the Desert Research Institute. Robock said even this technique has not been a proven success, and it works in a very limited area.

"Project Stormfury tried seeding hurricanes decades ago but gave up," Robock said, referencing a failed experimental project that attempted to modify hurricanes by adding silver iodide to the clouds.

David Fahey, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chemical Sciences Laboratory, and Joshua Horton, the former research director for geoengineering at the Harvard Kennedy School, also previously told USA TODAY they're not aware of any significant experiments or operations utilizing geoengineering technologies.

Frank Marks, director of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division, told USA TODAY any claims that Hurricane Hilary was impacted by geoengineering are "totally incorrect." He said any man-made influences on the hurricane were inadvertent and likely similar to those causing climate change.

"(The) NOAA does not support weather modification or geoengineering activities related to tropical cyclones," said Marks in an email.

Robock previouslysaid climate interventions like geoengineering are still being developed and studied, and many of the technologies necessary to make them work don't exist yet.

Sources cited in video don't prove hurricane was man-made

The man in the Instagram video initially references two patents for hurricane control methods. The first describes the potential to control hurricanes by raising temperatures in the eye or outflow of the storm, while the second suggests controlling tornados and hurricanes by projecting sound waves at them.

Both patents' statuses are listed as "abandoned," meaning neither ended up being successfully pursued.

Weather Modification Inc., the next source the man discusses, says on its website it provides knowledge, data, equipment and capabilities to those pursuing weather projects. The page specifically referenced by the man in the video describes the company's fleet of 35 airplanes, which it says are used for cloud seeding and atmospheric research operations.

Neither page mentions geoengineering.

Geoengineering Monitor, a website opposing geoengineering techniques, provides an interactive map of what it says are past, ongoing and planned geoengineering projects. Robock said none of the projects featured on the map support the man's implication that the hurricane was man-made. He mentioned that one of his own projects, the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project, is featured on the map and pointed out that the project only conducts computer simulations.

Finally, the video references the National Weather Modification Policy Act of 1976, which directed the secretary of commerce tostudy the needs, implications, importance and recommendations for possible weather modification technology. The document specifically mentions decreasing the severity of hurricanes as an example of weather modification, not causing them.

Robock said this act doesn't have a correlation with hurricane creation either.

Due to climate change, hurricanes will likely continue to become more intense, increasing levels of rainfall and coastal flood risk, according to NASA.

USA TODAY previously debunked a video from the same creator in which he claimed the fires in Maui were linked to 15-minute cities, artificial intelligence, energy weapons and weather modification. There's no evidence any of these claims are true.

USA TODAY reached out to Weather Modification Inc.; ETC Group, a co-creator of Geoengineering Monitor; and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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