Reuters/NOAAFalse claims that Hurricane Milton was “man-made” and that Florida’s weather was “manipulated” continue to spread on social media.
There is no technology that allows humans to create and control hurricanes.
But on platforms like X and TikTok, posts accusing the U.S. government of secretly controlling the weather without evidence have been viewed millions of times.
Much of the content was posted by accounts known for spreading conspiracy theories and misinformation about Covid-19 or vaccines.
These users agreed that Hurricane Milton, one of the most powerful storms in modern American history, was intentionally created by shadow forces at the heart of American politics.
But they offer several different explanations for how they do this.
Some users claim that weather manipulation techniques such as cloud seeding are to blame.
Artificial rainfall involves manipulating existing clouds to try to produce more rainfall, such as in countries with dry climates.
But the southeastern U.S. was already reeling from heavy rainfall from Hurricane Helene, which two weeks ago caused deadly flooding in several states.
“When we do cloud seeding, it’s because there aren’t enough aerosols or water vapor in the atmosphere to see condensation occur, so we try to see through it,” said Jill Trepanier, an expert on extreme weather phenomena in Louisiana. Overseed the cloud to force it to happen.
“In the western Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, this is not a problem. The Earth will create its own hurricanes.
Other users blamed “geoengineering” – a set of methods of manipulating the environment to reduce the effects of climate change.
But there are no tools that allow humans to create or control storms like this.
“It is not possible to use geoengineering to modify hurricanes with current knowledge and technology,” said Susana Camargo of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
Hurricanes are natural weather systems.
Typically, they begin with what’s called a tropical wave, an area of low pressure that forms thunderstorms and clouds.
As strong winds push this system from Africa toward the Americas, warm, moist air rises from the tropical Atlantic and the cloud and wind system begins to rotate.
With ample energy from warm ocean waters, combined with favorable circulation patterns in the atmosphere, it could intensify into a full-blown hurricane.
Social media posts seen by BBC verify falsely suggest that hurricanes like this are created for sinister reasons, including an attempt to influence next month’s presidential election.
These claims are false but are related to human activity, as climate change often makes these storms more intense.
Climate change – caused by human activity emitting planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide – is not thought to increase the number of tropical storms around the world.
But rising temperatures do make the strongest hurricanes more likely.
Warming oceans mean these storms can absorb more energy, potentially leading to higher wind speeds.
Hurricane Milton intensified particularly quickly as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico, where sea surface temperatures were about 1-2 degrees Celsius above average.
Peak sustained wind speed increases from 90 mph (150 km/h) arrive 175 mph (280 km/h) It took just 12 hours on October 7, according to the National Hurricane Center.
For some social media users, this sudden change was seen as “evidence” to support their view that this was not a “natural” storm, but one created by humans.
But the trend is consistent with expectations that hurricanes will generally intensify at an accelerated pace under global warming.
Andra Garner, an assistant professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, explained: “As the Earth warms, we expect there will be many potential impacts from hurricanes that could make them more destructive, including during periods of unusually warm weather. The ability to strengthen faster in sea water.
Hurricane Helene, which hit Florida about two weeks ago, is also rapidly intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico.
A new study released Wednesday found that artificial warming increases the likelihood of unusually high sea surface temperatures in its orbit by hundreds of times.
“[Helene] Ben Clarke, of the World Weather Attribution Group, which led the study, explained that the damage is significantly greater due to climate change.
In addition to the usual strong winds, climate change affects other hurricane hazards.
A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture – up to around 7% for every 1°C rise in temperature. This means the rainfall is likely to be more intense.
Global sea levels have been rising in recent decades, largely due to global warming. This makes certain storm surges (short-term rises in sea levels caused by storms) more likely to cause coastal flooding.
In Florida, mean sea level Rise more than 18 cm (7 inches) since 1970according to U.S. government data.
For some users spreading conspiracy theories surrounding Hurricane Milton, this also amounted to “alarmism.” But the evidence suggests otherwise.
