What if we told you that humans have been controlling the weather — or at least trying to — for decades? This isn’t sci-fi, and it’s not just some conspiracy theory, either. Cloud seeding is a real technology with a long and colorful history, and it’s making headlines again as people speculate on its role in today’s increasingly bizarre weather patterns.
First, what is cloud seeding? Cloud seeding is used to augment or suppress weather events, most notably precipitation. It is important to understand that this process is, for better or worse, human intervention in the weather. Moreover, this intervention can be accomplished with planes or drones, but this is only one method of cloud seeding developed in the history of this process.
Several questions and uncertainties surround the long-term effects and unpredictability of weather manipulation, not to mention the historical abuses for which this technology has already been used.
Scientifically speaking, cloud seeding introduces compounds or particles to a storm system to induce precipitation. Per Earth.org, the compound that is most commonly used is silver iodide (AgI), but others include sodium chloride (NaCl), calcium chloride (CaCl2), potassium iodide (KI), dry ice (solid CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), bismuth tri-iodide (BiI3), and propane (C3H8). Regardless of the compound, the released particles imitate the formation of ice crystals in the clouds, allowing for moisture to "latch onto" these artificial compounds. The weight of these “nuclei” then induces rain to fall from the clouds.
Silver iodide is the preferred chemical because its structure is quite similar to that of natural ice crystals. Furthermore, a single gram of silver iodide can induce trillions of artificial ice crystals. This is naturally a favorite compound because not only is it structurally very similar to the ice crystals, but it is also very cost-effective.
The official discovery of cloud seeding methods is credited to Vincent Schaefer and Bernard Vonnegut (yes, the older brother of Kurt Vonnegut). They separately discovered two different methods around the same time: one using dry ice to alter the heat of the cloud system and the other involving the chemical manipulation of the clouds to simulate the formation of ice crystals. In the end, however, cloud seeding is accomplished in both ways, seeking to manipulate the ice crystals in the clouds. General Electric discovered and developed these methods in 1946. Both methods are still used to this day, usually using dry ice and silver iodide, respectively.
Many of the purported mainstream uses for cloud seeding are banal, although the fact that this technology exists and has been utilized for decades is not. According to Earth.org, cloud seeding is used by governments to supplement the water supply in drought-stricken areas, suppress extreme heat, control wildfires, and improve agricultural productivity. On the other hand, ski resorts, insurance companies, and airports sometimes employ this technology to increase snowfall, mitigate hailstorms, or disperse fog, respectively.
Interestingly, not all applications of cloud seeding technology have been so benign. For example, the United States military used cloud seeding technology in the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1972 in a project known as Operation Popeye. According to a New York Times article published in 1972, this project sought to extend the monsoon season in North Vietnam to affect military operations during the war, especially along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was hoped that the increased rainfall during monsoon season would cause landslides and destroy roads, disrupting North Vietnam’s military supply chains and troop/arms movements.
What’s more, the report indicated that “many usually well‐informed members of the Nixon Administration had been kept in the dark.” According to a “well-placed government official,” this operation was kept under wraps even within the government itself: “This kind of thing was a bomb, and Henry [Kissinger] restricted information about it to those who had to know.” The article suggests that Henry Kissinger played a direct role in this project and its concealment within the government.
According to Earth.org, cloud seeding for military use was suspended in a 1977 international treaty, yet this historical example demonstrates this technology's wide range of applications.
New innovations have seemingly streamlined the cloud seeding process in some experiments. For example, it was reported that the “United Arab Emirates began to experiment with the use of aerial drones for cloud seeding.” As the article explains, “The new twist on the old concept uses drones to cast an electric charge. This ‘zaps’ clouds with a laser beam, which causes water droplets to combine and leads to rainfall.” While the science behind this particular experiment is not as clear, this does show that the technology is improving and that many countries are attempting to refine this process. More broadly, we can conclude that this technology has existed for a long time, is explainable, and is certainly not "magic." In true "Jurassic Park" fashion, however, there is, of course, an ethical debate that should supersede the scientific inquiry.
Cloud seeding can produce many positive effects. It can bring more water to arid lands, like the Western United States or some parts of China. It can also shape weather events for less utilitarian purposes. For example, China used this technology during the 2016 Beijing Olympics and claims that it “cleared the skies for the Beijing Olympics by forcing the rain to come early.” It can ostensibly stop or shrink the size of hail. It can also potentially mitigate harmful weather events such as hurricanes or monsoons.
However, cloud seeding could have some negative consequences. First, weather is evidently unpredictable, so even if we can influence the weather, we cannot fully control it. According to a government official familiar with Operation Popeye at the time, there was a large margin of error in the experimental phase of the project: “We used to go out flying around and looking for a certain cloud formation,” the official said. “And we made a lot of mistakes. Once we dumped seven inches of rain in two hours on one of our Special Forces camps.”
Second, silver iodide, the popular compound used in the cloud seeding process, is mildly toxic to humans over long periods of time: “Ingestion of silver iodide can lead to nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Prolonged exposure to silver iodide can cause argyria, a condition where silver deposits in the tissues, causing them to turn blue or gray.” Most sources claim that the concentration of silver iodide in water produced through this process is negligible. Taking these sources in good faith, it should nonetheless be noted that our evidence is likely to reflect small areas of land over a shorter period than would be preferable. That is to say, we do not know the long-term effects of silver iodide in the water for a larger population, like the United States.
It is astounding that this technology exists and seems to be somewhat effective. It is a true feat of human ingenuity. This technology has many potential benefits, and it is hoped that entities equipped with these capabilities will use them well. We should also be more informed about developments of this technology in the future. Several questions and uncertainties surround the long-term effects and unpredictability of weather manipulation, not to mention the historical abuses for which this technology has already been used. These questions should be answered before this tech is expedited or expanded to a larger scale of operation. Let’s hope that, as more people learn about this reality, there is a stronger push for an ethical debate to develop alongside this incredible feat of science. If scientists must “play God,” as some critics say, we should at least proceed very cautiously.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is frequently attacked in the Canadian media for her conservatism and her antagonism of the Trudeau government. This week, however, she was targeted for answering a constituent's question about chemtrails.
In their rush to condemn Smith for supposedly "sowing fears" and engaging with "conspiracy theorists," critics and other political opportunists glossed over at least one good reason why Canadians might suspect that planes are dumping toxic chemicals over their heads — namely the fact that the Pentagon has a history of doing just that.
During a recent United Conservative Party town hall in Edmonton, an audience member asked Smith about the occurrence of chemtrails over Alberta. Smith indicated that she did some asking around but has yet to see any evidence confirming public or private operations that would qualify.
'If anyone is doing it, it's the U.S. Department of Defense.'
Chemtrails refer to the theory that governments or other groups use airplanes to dump toxic chemicals or biological agents into the atmosphere, which appear as lingering condensation trails.
At temperatures below 45°F, contrails — usually the result of soot particulate from jet fuel and water vapor freezing — cannot evaporate again and typically end up persisting until dispersed by the wind. Although there are multiple versions of the chemtrails theory, some of which reference the 1996 Pentagon study "Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025," the suggestion is there is a malevolence behind these puffy contrails.
"The best I have been able to do is talk to the woman who is responsible for controlling the airspace, and she says no one is allowed to go up and spray anything in the air," said Smith. "The other person told me that if anyone is doing it, it's the U.S. Department of Defense."
Although apparently open to conducting a formal investigation, Smith intimated that it would ultimately be a federal undertaking.
"I have some limitations in what I can do in my job," said Smith. "I don't know that I would have much power if that is the case, if the U.S. Department of Defense is spraying us."
The premier's office said in a statement to Global News:
The premier has heard concerns from many Albertans about this topic. In response, the provincial government looked into the issue and found no evidence of chemtrails occurring in Alberta. The premier was simply sharing what she has heard from some folks over the summer on this issue. She was not saying that she believed the U.S. government was using chemtrails in Alberta.
A spokesman for NORAD and U.S. Northern Command told the Canadian press in a statement, "NORAD and U.S. Northern Command are not conducting any flight activities in Canada that involve the spraying of chemicals."
Although she denied having seen any evidence of chemtrails, Smith was still attacked for daring to even broach the subject.
Timothy Caulfield, a professor at the leftist University of Alberta's School of Public Health, told Global News, "The premier is making room for and, I would argue, legitimizing a conspiracy theory."
"She could have said, 'Look, I hear your concerns but the reality is that this is not true,'" added Caufield.
Trudeau cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault similarly attacked the premier, telling reporters, "I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that Premier Smith is using her office to peddle conspiracy theories."
Nathan Ip, a member of Alberta's socialist NDP, joined his fellow travelers in mischaracterizing Smith's remarks, telling the Canadian Press it was "truly horrifying to see the premier of Alberta spread conspiracy theories."
'They said they were testing what they characterized as a chemical fog.'
While the likes of Caufield, Boissonnault, and Ip appear keen to reject the possibility of aircraft dumping chemicals overhead, there is precedent in their province.
Over a decade ago, St. Louis Community College sociology professor Lisa Martino-Taylor obtained U.S. Army documents through a Freedom of Information Act request revealing that in the mid-1950s, the Army used motorized blowers atop the roof of a low-income housing high-rise in St. Louis to test whether a chemical fog could shield ground targets from aerial observation. The fluorescent material blown into the poor neighborhood was zinc cadmium sulfide, reported the Associated Press.
This test was not an isolated case.
'In principle, spraying an aerosol chemical mist over a populated area is criminal.'
Additional classified documents obtained by Martino-Taylor indicated that between July 9, 1954, and Aug. 1, 1953, six kilograms of zinc cadmium sulfide were sprayed in aerosol clouds over the unsuspecting city of Winnipeg via U.S. Army aircraft, reported the National Post.
This was part of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps' broader Operation LAC.
"In Winnipeg, they said they were testing what they characterized as a chemical fog to protect Winnipeg in the event of a Russian attack," said Martino-Taylor. "They characterized it as a defensive study when it was actually an offensive study."
"In principle, spraying an aerosol chemical mist over a populated area is criminal, to say the least," pharmacologist Frank LaBella told the Winnipeg Free Press. "At the time, there were no reports of illness but, if present, they could not be distinguished from other illnesses. If there were lasting effects, we'll never know."
Just over a decade later, aircraft conducted similar chemical dumps over the Albertan cities of Suffield and Medicine Hat, according to Martino-Taylor.
When the U.S. Army returned in 1964 for yet another chemical dump, Canadian officials expressed concern that an "American aircraft was emitting distinctly visible emissions."
A visible stream of toxic chemicals trailing out of a government aircraft engaged in a secret military experiment would likely qualify as a not-so theoretical chemtrail.
Lewis Brackpool, an independent journalist and the host of the podcast "The State of It," told Blaze News, "I believe that we shouldn't be using the term 'Chemtrails' anymore as it carries a lot of toxic baggage (ironically) and is just an easy way for the media class to shut down the conversation and dismiss someone as a crank or a conspiracy theorist, similar to when people use the term 'the great replacement' instead of 'replacement migration.'"
Brackpool suggested that to open the conversation to the wider public and overcome the stigma, alternative terms, such as "climate engineering" or "geo-engineering," might be prudent.
After all, some of the renewed interest in chemtrails has been driven in part by recent controversies over governmental and private efforts to meddle with the weather and alter the skies, such as cloud seeding and solar radiation management.
Cloud seeding is the controversial weather modification technique whereby aircraft, rockets, cannons, or ground generators release various chemicals and tiny particles, such as potassium chloride, into clouds in an effort to artificially increase precipitation.
Like the U.S., the United Arab Emirates has conducted cloud-seeding missions for decades. The Gulf state's National Center of Meteorology reportedly conducts more than 1,000 hours of cloud-seeding missions every year, using aircraft equipped with hygroscopic flares full of nucleating agents.
Blaze News previously noted that a government meteorologist blamed the cloud seeding operations when Dubai was rocked in April by the heaviest downpour in 75 years and fatal flooding. The government subsequently denied responsibility.
Cloud seeding has proven fatal before.
Blackpool noted that declassified documents show that the Royal Air Force experimented with artificial rainmaking as part of Operation Cumulus the same week that some of the worst flash floods to have ever hit Britain stormed the village of Lynmouth, killing 35.
In addition to cloud seeding, some groups are feeding chemtrail theorists' suspicions by openly plotting to pollute the stratosphere with sulfur dioxide in hopes of replicating the effects of volcanic eruptions on blocking sunlight and lowering global mean temperatures.
The MIT Technology Review reported that last year, researchers in the U.K. used a high-altitude weather balloon to dump sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Their use of "Stratospheric Aerosol Transport and Nucleation" or SATAN balloon systems was allegedly "an engineering proof-of-concept test, not an environmentally perturbative experiment."
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The United Arab Emirates and neighboring states were rocked this week by the heaviest rains on record, which resulted in devastating floods, dozens of deaths, significant damage, and diverted flights.
A government meteorologist indicated early on that the UAE's well-known geoengineering efforts were at least partly to blame. However, now that there is a body count, the government task force responsible for cloud-seeding missions in the region is attempting to deny responsibility.
Liberal media outlets such as the Guardian and Wired and so-called experts have dutifully accepted these denials, insinuating that climate change or other factors may instead be responsible.
Cloud seeding is the controversial weather modification technique whereby aircraft, rockets, cannons, or ground generators release various chemicals and tiny particles, such as potassium chloride, into clouds in an effort to artificially increase precipitation.
Professor Ari Laaksonen of the Finnish Meteorological Institute indicated that there are two principal cloud-seeding techniques. Hygrocopic cloud seeding serves to speed up droplet coalescence in liquid clouds, "leading to production of large droplets that start to precipitate." The other technique, called glaciogenic cloud seeding, serves to "trigger ice production in supercooled clouds, leading to precipitation."
Cloud seeding not only works but has reportedly helped increase Utah's water supply by an estimated 12% in 2018.
The UAE has been conducting cloud-seeding missions for decades.
According to the Khaleej Times of Dubai, the UAE has ramped up its efforts under the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement, managed by the Gulf state's National Center of Meteorology. This particular scheme was kicked off by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs of the UAE.
Alya Almazroui, director of the initiative, told the Khaleej Times in September, "By experimenting with various seeding approaches, we anticipate that these campaigns could lead to a more effective cloud-seeding approach and, consequently, increased rainfall in the targeted areas."
On average, the NCM reportedly conducts more than 1,000 hours of cloud-seeding missions every year, using aircraft equipped with hygroscopic flares full of nucleating agents.
It appears as though the NCM may have succeeded in its efforts at the expense of numerous lives.
ABC News Australia reported that a year's worth of rain descended on the UAE Tuesday, paralyzing Dubai and effectively closing the Dubai International Airport — the world's busiest hub for international air travel.
Extra to prompting hundreds of flights to divert course, rains fed destructive floods across the Emirates and Bahrain, killing at least 20 in Oman and one person in the UAE. Underground parking lots were flooded and metro operations were shuttered. Power was also knocked off in certain areas.
Dubai's media office acknowledged Tuesday that the downpour the UAE experienced this week was the heaviest it has experienced in 75 years.
Dr. Ahmed Habib, a meteorological specialist with the Gulf state's National Center of Meteorology, told Bloomberg that the NCM dispatched seeding planes from Al Ain airport on Monday and Tuesday to "take advantage of convective cloud formations."
Bloomberg indicated that NCM flew several cloud-seeding flights prior to the downpour. The Associated Press also indicated at least one aircraft associated with the cloud-seeding initiative flew around the country on Monday.
The NCM claimed on Wednesday it had instead seeded the sky on Sunday and Monday. State media did not acknowledge earlier flights.
Omar AlYazeedi, deputy director of the NCM, later told CNBC that the agency "did not conduct any seeding operations during this event."
Habib also later changed his tune, suggesting that the six cloud-seeding flights he had previously told the press about had indeed flown missions but had not seeded any clouds.
Various so-called experts have apparently taken the NCM at its word and seized on the opportunity to instead blame climate change.
Daniel Swain, a "climate scientist" at the University of California, Los Angeles, tweeted, "Did cloud seeding play a role? (Spoiler: likely no!) But how about #ClimateChange? (Another spoiler: likely yes!)."
"When we talk about heavy rainfall, we need to talk about climate change. Focusing on cloud seeding is misleading," Friederike Otto, a supposed global warming specialist at the Imperial College of London, told the Associated Press. "Rainfall is becoming much heavier around the world as the climate warms because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture."
"Rainfall from thunderstorms, like the ones seen in UAE in recent days, sees a particular strong increase with warming. This is because convection, which is the strong updraft in thunderstorms, strengthens in a warmer world," Dim Coumou of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam told Reuters.
Maarten Ambau, an atmospheric physics professor at the University of Reading, told the Guardian that "cloud seeding, certainly in the Emirates, is used for clouds that don't normally produce rain. ... You would not normally develop a very severe storm out of that."
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The USS Hornet may be a decommissioned aircraft carrier, yet it has nevertheless become the launch-site for a controversial new war in the skies.
The Marine Cloud Brightening Program's Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement project, led by researchers from the University of Washington, took to the deck of the Hornet Tuesday to launch streams of particles into the sky above the San Francisco Bay. Their ultimate objective is apparently to block and reflect sunlight in hopes of limiting "global warming."
CAARE researchers behind the geoengineering scheme opted not to announce their experiment, reportedly citing concerns that there might be significant backlash.
After all, the American public — or at the very least, the residents of Alameda — might first want to hear from the hundreds of scientists who have called for a non-use agreement for solar radiation management and stated in an open letter that the "risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known. Impacts will vary across regions, and there are uncertainties about the effects on weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water."
Clouds bounce some of the sun's rays back into space. This supposedly helps cool temperatures locally.
The University of Washington's Department of Atmospheric Sciences conceded that fossil fuel emissions and other human activities have long generated aerosols in the atmosphere that mix in with low-altitude clouds, causing them to brighten and reflect more sunlight, having a cooling effect on the earth's climate.
"I think most people are aware that there's a greenhouse gas effect that warms climate," UW MCB program director Sarah Doherty told the Weather Channel. "But what most people aren't aware of is that the particles that we've also been producing and adding to the atmosphere offset some of that climate warming. So, the overall effect is one of climate warming, but it would be a lot more without that particulate pollution."
With climate alarmists concerned over supposed global temperature increases and the corresponding war on fossil fuels sure to rob the clouds of a contributing brightener, some scientists are keen to pump out aerosols of their own.
Robert Wood, the lead UW scientist running the cloud project, noted on his university blog that the team at the CAARE facility developed a "Cloud-Aerosol Research Instrument (CARI)." This device, which has multiple nozzles and resembles a snow maker, can apparently fire trillions of salt particles into the air.
The UW indicated that once emitted, such particles would only remain airborne in the atmosphere for a few days.
Wood told the San Francisco Chronicle simulations project that if 15% of Earth's marine clouds were artificially brightened, the globe might cool by approximately one degree.
According to the New York Times, CAARE researchers used their CARI device last week aboard the USS Hornet, firing particles and testing to make sure their cloud-brightening machine would function as desired outside a lab.
The Chronicle indicated that the next step of research will entail actually attempting to meddle with the clouds off the coast of California.
"Every year that we have new records of climate change, and record temperatures, heat waves, it's driving the field to look at more alternatives," Wood told the Times. "Even ones that may have once been relatively extreme."
Contrary to Woods' intimation, many still regard marine cloud brightening to be an extreme and potentially fruitless initiative.
In addition to noting that MCB and other forms of solar radiation modification may ultimately accomplish little in the way of lowering global temperatures, the Congressional Research Service noted in a May 2023 report that some "modeling studies of [marine cloud brightening] have suggested it could alter precipitation patterns at global and regional levels."
A 2017 study published in Nature Communications indicated that aerosols released just in the northern hemisphere could possibly even lead to an increase in droughts, hurricanes, and storms elsewhere.
Late last month, a group of 31 top atmospheric scientists noted in a paper published in Science Advances that there is presently a "lack of a clear understanding of the relationship between aerosol and meteorological conditions and liquid water and cloud fraction adjustments and their timescales."
"Regional changes in temperature and rainfall could influence heat stress, water availability, crop productivity and the ability of communities to thrive," added the scientists who emphasized the need to evaluate the viability and risks of MCB.
The widespread concerns over the feasibility and fallout of such experiments has prompted the Biden administration to distance itself from the CAARE experiment, even though President Joe Biden signed Congress' Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, providing funding for a "scientific assessment of solar and other rapid climate interventions in the context of near-term climate risks and hazards," including aerosol injection.
The White House told the Times in a statement, "The U.S. government is not involved in the Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) experiment taking place in Alameda, CA, or anywhere else."
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Lana Del Rey has an eclectic combination of influences that keeps her isolated by mainstream standards despite her clear talent.
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