Two weeks ago in this space, I wrote about how disinformation was obfuscating the life-saving mission of the National Weather Service (NWS) and its partners in media and emergency management agencies. This week, the parent agency of the weather service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), felt compelled to issue a press release titled Fact check: Debunking weather modification claims.
In the subheading, NOAA cut to the chase: “No one creates or steers hurricanes; the technology does not exist.” The purpose of the communiqué was to provide “science-based facts and information in response” to “some of the inaccurate claims circulating online.”
Before highlighting the most important takeaways from NOAA’s factchecking, I also think it’s important to add context to what’s been happening. While an inordinate group of people seem susceptible to conspiracy theories, Russia and some U.S. politicians amplified hurricane disinformation to drive Americans apart, according to research shared in an NBC6 story online.
Here are some of the claims NOAA debunked:
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Claim: The government is creating and steering hurricanes into specific states or counties.
Fact: No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form. Hurricanes are natural phenomena that form on their own due to aligning conditions of the ocean and atmosphere.
Claim: Projects like HAARP and SCOPEX modify weather.
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Fact: Neither can modify the weather. HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a small National Science Foundation-funded facility in Alaska that conducts research on the ionosphere, 30 to 600 miles above the Earth’s surface. It’s a part of the atmosphere that is difficult to study because it’s too high for aircraft and balloons, and too low for satellites. The HAARP system is basically a large radio transmitter used by scientists and the military to better understand the effects of solar disruptions on radio communications and GPS positioning guidance. SCOPEX ended in March 2024, but the project was designed to study the behavior of small amounts of aerosols in the stratosphere to better understand solar geoengineering.
Claim: Solar geoengineering made hurricanes Helene and Milton worse.
Fact: Solar geoengineering is a theoretical practice which would modify the atmosphere to shade Earth’s surface by reflecting sunlight back into space. This is not yet taking place at scale anywhere in the world.
NOAA adds, “the Earth’s warming atmosphere can cause hurricanes to intensify rapidly and carry more moisture allowing them to dump higher amounts of rain. Record to near-record warm ocean temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico allowed hurricanes Helene and Milton to rapidly intensify.”
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season is running above or well above normal by all measures. To date there have been 60% more “major hurricane days” than normal, which serves as another data point validating the tendency over recent decades for a greater percentage of hurricanes reaching category 4 and 5 intensities.
For now, the Atlantic is on pause. The season is about to enter its last month, but we should continue to be vigilant.
