No, the government can’t create hurricanes

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Florida’s gulf coast on Sept. 26. Powerful Hurricane Milton followed closely behind. 

Because the hurricanes are hitting Florida back-to-back, people posting online suggest the hurricanes were created or caused by HAARP, or the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program. Others questioned if the hurricanes were artificially created. 

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the founder of InfoWars, posted this video that has amassed 1.2 million views saying the government’s weather modification technology was used to create Hurricane Helene as a “weather weapon.” This X post with over 75,000 views also suggests the government also created Hurricane Helene.

VERIFY readers Theresa and Lindsay asked us if those claims were true.

THE QUESTION

Can the government create hurricanes?

THE SOURCES

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP)
• Brittany Van Voorhees, a meteorologist with VERIFY partner station WCNC
• Hurricane Research Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory
• Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) Oct. 8 letter to constituents

THE ANSWER

No, neither the federal government nor HAARP can create hurricanes. Claims that HAARP caused or created the hurricanes are also linked to decades-old conspiracy theories about the research facility.

WHAT WE FOUND

Neither the federal government nor the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) can create or cause hurricanes. 

Hurricanes occur naturally over warm ocean waters near the equator, where temperatures must reach at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The warm water heats the air above, causing it to rise and create a low-pressure area. Due to Earth’s rotation, the rising air begins to spin, forming a rotating storm system that can grow into a hurricane under the right conditions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which monitors hurricanes, told VERIFY “the genesis of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, as is the case for any hurricane, formed on their own given the right conditions of sea surface temperature and upper atmospheric wind.”

Brittany Van Voorhees, a meteorologist with VERIFY partner station WCNC, also emphasized that neither the government nor any other institution can “manufacture clouds and storms from nothing.”

In an Oct. 8 letter to constituents debunking hurricane myths, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) reinforced that “nobody can control the weather.” He cited NOAA’s Southeast Regional Climate Center, which said “no one has the technology or ability to geoengineer a hurricane.”

The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), funded in part by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, studies the ionosphere by sending radio waves into the earth’s atmosphere to learn how the signals work, in particular how radio waves affect communication signals like radio and GPS. 

HAARP has no ability to influence weather, as weather phenomena occur in the troposphere,  the layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface. HAARP’s own website refutes the notion that it can control weather, explaining how the radio waves don’t interact with the Earth’s troposphere or stratosphere.

HAARP’s website says: “Can HAARP Control or Manipulate the Weather? No. Radio waves in the frequency ranges that HAARP transmits are not absorbed in either the troposphere or the stratosphere — the two levels of the atmosphere that produce Earth’s weather. Since there is no interaction, there is no way to control the weather. The HAARP system is basically a large radio transmitter. Radio waves interact with electrical charges and currents, and do not significantly interact with the troposphere.” 

“[HAARP] for some reason has gained an incorrect reputation on parts of the Internet as being part of a weather modification effort. Simply put, it is not. HAARP had absolutely no connection to the formation of hurricanes Helene or Milton, the formation of any other hurricane, or the genesis of any other natural weather event,” NOAA told VERIFY. 

Van Voorhees questioned the logic behind the far-flung theory. 

“I would also like to ask anyone who believes that ‘the government’ engineers or makes hurricanes worse… Why would they do that when it means they spend billions of dollars, or billions of dollars more, on disaster recovery? That doesn’t make logical sense,” Van Voorhees said.

The theories about manufacturing or geoengineering hurricanes may have originated from a real federal government program, Project STORMFURY, which ran from 1962 to 1983. The project attempted to modify hurricanes by injecting silver iodide into the eye of the hurricane to reduce wind speed, according to the Hurricane Research Division of the Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory. The project ended after 20 years when it was concluded that a hurricane couldn't be modified.

“There is no sound physical hypothesis for the modification of hurricanes, tornadoes, or damaging winds in general, and no related scientific experimentation has been conducted in the past 20 years. In the absence of a sound hypothesis, no Federal agencies are presently doing, or planning, research on hurricane modification,” the American Meteorological Society determined.

VERIFY also received several reader questions asking if cloud seeding caused hurricanes Helene or Milton. That is also not possible. Cloud seeding programs occur worldwide; in the U.S., the programs are used most often in the western U.S., in states like California, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico where drought conditions exist the most.

Van Voorhees told VERIFY cloud seeding happens when silver iodide is added to an “already existing” cloud or storm to increase condensation or precipitation in drought-stricken areas. In contrast, hurricanes are complex weather systems that require specific conditions, such as warm water and air pressure, to form. Cloud seeding doesn’t have the ability to create those conditions.