President Biden responded Wednesday to what he called “stupid” claims that the federal government can control the weather, as false statement has been promoted by some politicians and prominent figures.
“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia is now saying the federal government literally controls the weather, we control the weather. It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s so stupid it has to stop,” Mr. Biden said in his speech. White House remarks. He also pledged federal support for hurricane recovery efforts.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has created a new “Hurricane Rumor Response” page to combat misinformation. The White House launched an official Reddit account, with one post dedicated to debunking hurricane misinformation. And many local officials have taken to social media to denounce the disinformation.
Rep. Chuck Edwards, a Republican from North Carolina, sent a letter to his constituents following Hurricane Helene urging them to be wary of “unreliable sources who attempt to sow chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories and hearsay about hurricane response efforts in our mountains.”
Claims that the government was in control of Hurricane Milton spread widely across social media platforms, including X, TikTok and Facebook, just days after similar false claims spread during Hurricane Helene. An article on X with over 100,000 views claimed that Hurricane Milton was a “modified and manipulated” storm used as a “weapon.”
“Yes, they can control the weather,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on X on October 3. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say this isn’t possible.” Greene also shared a 2013 CBS News segment in which a physics professor discussed lab experiments studying the potential use of lasers to affect the weather.
Several meteorology experts told CBS News that it is not possible to create or control hurricanes, with one expert calling the claim “completely absurd.”
Some social media users also refer to geoengineering, which NASA describes as projects proposed “to reverse or limit climate change through intentional, large-scale manipulation of the Earth’s climate.” But “geoengineering couldn’t create or control hurricanes,” said Joshua Horton, a senior researcher in solar geoengineering at Harvard University.
“It doesn’t currently exist, but if it did, geoengineering would be far too inaccurate to control weather or weather events like hurricanes,” Horton said.
Some social media users also pointed to cloud seeding as proof that the government can control Hurricane Milton. Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that can improve a cloud’s ability to create rain or snow, according to the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute, which has its own seeding program clouds. Cloud seeding has been around since the 1940s, and dozens of countries have such programs.
Hurricane modification by cloud seeding was explored between 1962 and 1983, but the project ended after seeding proved ineffective compared to the hurricane’s natural forces, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Charles Konrad, a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said it’s important to recognize that hurricane modification has been tested in the past, but is ineffective.
“They tried to modify hurricanes and in the end they realized they couldn’t,” he said.
Konrad said hurricanes are “large atmospheric entities” that require an “incredible amount of energy” — more energy than humans could harness to weaken or direct the storm.
Hugh Willoughby, a research professor at Florida International University whose work focuses on hurricanes, said he was not aware of any U.S. programs to revive the hurricane modification project. He said the idea that the government could control a hurricane was “absolutely absurd.”
Konrad said the National Hurricane Center is a reliable source for anyone looking for verified hurricane information. “We have the best and brightest, very specialized tropical meteorologists who have dedicated their careers to understanding these things,” he said.
