Online Conspiracy Theorists Look to Cloud-Seeding as Source of Deadly Texas Flooding

This being the world today, the deadly floods that raced through Texas over the weekend are now the source of a new conspiracy theory, this time about “cloud seeding.”Cloud seeding is a fairly simple process. Materials such as silver iodide or calcium chloride are injected into cumulus clouds — the most capable of generating heavy rainfall. Scientists say the process can result in up to 20 percent more rain, but past studies show that cloud seeding rarely adds even an inch of rainfall.Yet facts never stand in the way of a good conspiracy theory. “As of Tuesday, over 2.6 million people had viewed a post on X by a well-known conspiracy theorist account which suggested a link between the deadly floods and cloud seeding operations conducted two days earlier by Rainmaker, a weather modification start-up funded partly by US software billionaire Peter Thiel,” one site wrote.In another post, this one viewed nearly 3 million times, the same account claimed that the state of Texas is “running seven massive cloud seeding programs” in an attempt to “enhance rainfall across millions of acres” and pondering: “Did they push the clouds too far and trigger this flood?”Giving the conspiracy theory an air of legitimacy are posts by General Mike Flynn, a former national security adviser to President Trump during his first term, and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Gen. Flynn questions whether cloud seeding led to the floods, and Ms. Greene announced on Monday that she is “introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.”Ms. Greene, who earned a business degree from University of Georgia, added in her X post that she has “been researching weather modification and working with the legislative counsel for months writing this bill. We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”Kandiss Taylor, running for Georgia’s District 1 seat in the U.S. House, also poured gasoline on the flames, posting on X: “Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.” In another post she wrote: “This isn’t just ‘climate change.’ It’s cloud seeding, geoengineering, & manipulation. Fake weather causes real tragedy, that’s murder. Pray. Prepare. Question the narrative.”But there’s no evidence to support the claim that cloud seeding led to the deadly floods, and scientists are busy trying to correct the record. Travis Herzog, a Houston broadcast meteorologist posted on Facebook on Sunday, “cloud seeding cannot create a storm of this magnitude or size.”“In fact, cloud seeding cannot even create a single cloud,” Mr. Herzog wrote. “All it can do is take an existing cloud and enhance the rainfall by up to 20%. Most estimates have the rainfall enhancement in a much lower range.”In his lengthy post, Mr. Herzog asks and answers his own questions.“Were cloud seeding operations conducted on the storms that produced the Texas floods?” he wrote. “No. In fact, Texas regulations prohibit cloud seeding on storms that could produce severe weather, tornadoes, or flash floods. One of the companies singled out on social media for cloud seeding conducted its last operation on Wednesday, July 2nd.”“Could the cloud seeding conducted two days before the floods have created or impacted the storms on July 4th?” he wrote. “No. Only an existing cloud can be seeded, and once that cloud has been seeded, it rains itself out. Furthermore, the cloud seeding took place southeast of San Antonio, roughly 150 miles away from Kerr County,” where the worst flooding took place.So what caused the devastating floods? The meteorologist has a theory, but this time based in science. “At the end of the day, this flood was caused by the remnants of two tropical weather systems that cannot be created nor controlled by mankind, despite claims to the contrary,” Mr. Herzog wrote. “That’s a year’s worth of rain in some communities that fell in 5 days over a geographic area bigger than many states in our country. Does it make sense to you that dropping a few grams of silver iodide into a cloud 150 miles away from the hardest hit communities two days before the flood even occurred could have caused this?” he asked. The obvious answer is no, no it doesn’t.

Online Conspiracy Theorists Look to Cloud-Seeding as Source of Deadly Texas Flooding

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