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So a Florida legislative bill is going to the governor’s desk regarding airplanes & weather modification. While the spirit of the bill generally makes sense, there is a great deal of confusion between jet contrails & so-called chemtrails.
In summary - Senate Bill 56 repeals the state’s ability to issue permits for geoengineering and weather modification. The bill also 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.
Let me be clear right out of the gate: The bottom line is that as long as jets are flying, THERE ARE GOING TO BE CONTRAILS IN OUR SKIES. How extensive & how long these contrails persist before dissipating will be dependent on the WEATHER.
Contrails are formed when jet engines release water vapor which condenses & freezes into ice crystals. Strong upper level winds can move the contrails rather quickly while light winds can result in little or no movement with only slow dissipation. Only about 18% of all jet flights form contrails (due to the weather conditions) which typically form above 20,000 feet when the air aloft is cold & humid.
But the “chemtrails” are seemingly being blamed for - & connected to - weather modification, & cloud seeding - which is - at best - a leap of faith & seemingly part of the conspiracy world that has inexplicably gained traction on a variety of topics in recent years. This legislation has only strengthened the belief of those convinced chemtrails are altering our lives. The theory is no doubt largely driven by government distrust but common sense needs to be applied too. Disinformation somehow (world wide web most likely) is “winning the game” over information. And it’s arguable that the media & certainly social media can be blamed too with vast amounts of bad/wrong information not to mention hysterical headlines & comments. Finding *reliable & impartial* sources is especially critical in today’s world. In the end... if it sounds too crazy to be true, it probably is.
I should point out Florida has previously issued permits for geoengineering and weather modification, including cloud seeding, which involves introducing substances like silver iodide into clouds to increase rainfall or disperse cloud cover. And some U.S. states still do take part in some cloud seeding in hopes of increasing precipitation. The bill’s sponsors felt Senate Bill 56 was needed to address conspiracy theories that the government was “controlling” the weather. There are not, by the way, any ongoing programs for such.
The weather sounding below the temp. profile that is more or less ideal for jet contrails (cooler, more humid = longer lasting contrails):
To be clear - NOAA *is* researching how climate change might be able to be addressed using certain forms of weather modification including solar radiation modification with the goal of deflecting sunlight thereby theoretically cooling the earth’s surface. But it’s not something that is being put into practice at this time in the United States.
From NOAA’s fact sheet:
- CLAIM: The government is creating, strengthening and/or steering hurricanes into specific communities.
- FACT: No technology exists that can create, destroy, modify, strengthen or steer hurricanes in any way, shape or form. All hurricanes, including Helene and Milton, are natural phenomena that form on their own due to aligning conditions of the ocean and atmosphere.
- CLAIM: NOAA modifies the weather.
- FACT: NOAA does not modify the weather, nor does it fund, participate in or oversee cloud seeding or any other weather modification activities. NOAA’s objective is to better understand and predict Earth’s systems, from the bottom of the seafloor to the surface of the sun. We are deepening our understanding and deploying new resources to improve forecasting and give communities earlier and more accurate warnings ahead of extreme weather events. NOAA is required by law* to track weather modification activities by others, including cloud seeding, but has no authority to regulate those activities.*The Weather Modification Reporting Act of 1972 (15 Code of Federal Regulations § 908) requires anyone who intends to engage in weather modification activities within the United States, including cloud seeding, to provide a report to the Administrator of NOAA at least 10 days prior to undertaking the activity. Those reports are filed via email and may be found on the NOAA Central Library website.
- CLAIM: The government is engaging in activities like cloud seeding to modify the weather.
- FACT: NOAA does not fund or participate in cloud seeding or other weather modification projects. Cloud seeding is the only common weather modification activity currently practiced in the United States — typically by private companies in western mountain basins in winter in order to help generate snow in specific locations, or in the desert southwest to replenish water reservoirs in summer. The method has been used for decades in an effort to increase stored water in snowpack that melts in the spring to maintain adequate water supply.Decades ago, between 1962 and 1982, NOAA provided support for research into whether hurricane intensity could be modified, known as Project STORMFURY. The research was not successful in modifying hurricanes and STORMFURY was discontinued. NOAA has not attempted to modify hurricane intensity and participate in cloud seeding since. For more information on this project, visit this NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory website.
- CLAIM: NEXRAD Doppler radars are being used to steer hurricanes and are targeting specific communities.
- FACT: Radars are tools for observation and are not able to direct the motion or intensity of air masses or storms. NEXRAD Doppler radars detect precipitation and the motion of the precipitation particles. The radar can determine an object’s location, shape, intensity and movement relative to the radar, but cannot alter or move those objects in any way. NEXRAD radars have been an essential weather forecasting tool since the 1990s and weather radars in general have been in use in the United States since the 1950s.
- CLAIM: Solar geoengineering made hurricanes Helene and Milton worse.
- FACT: Solar geoengineering, a theoretical practice which would modify the atmosphere to shade Earth’s surface by reflecting sunlight back into space, is not taking place at scale anywhere in the world. Geoengineering did not impact hurricanes Helene and Milton, let alone make them worse.The Earth’s warming atmosphere can cause hurricanes to intensify rapidly and carry more moisture, allowing them to dump higher amounts of rain. Record to near-record warm ocean temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico allowed hurricanes Helene and Milton to rapidly intensify. Natural steering currents in the upper atmosphere determine a storm’s path.
- CLAIM: NOAA is conducting solar geoengineering.
- FACT: NOAA is not conducting solar geoengineering. NOAA studies the stratosphere and marine boundary layer with instruments on balloons and aircraft to help fill important gaps in our knowledge and inform decisions about the potential risks and benefits of solar geoengineering.
- CLAIM: NOAA is involved with projects like HAARP and SCOPEX that modify weather.
- FACT: NOAA is not associated with these projects, neither of which can modify the weather. HAARPoffsite link is a small National Science Foundation-funded facility in Gakona, Alaska, that conducts research on the ionosphere, 30 to 600 miles above the Earth’s surface. HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is not capable of influencing local weather at Earth’s surface, let alone tropical cyclones thousands of miles away. The HAARP system is basically a large radio transmitter. SCOPEX,offsite link run out of Harvard University, was a scientific research project to study the behavior of small amounts of aerosols in the stratosphere to advance the understanding of solar geoengineering. The proposed scientific research project ended in March 2024 before field experiments were conducted.
The U.S. government has been part of weather modification in the past. These programs are well known & were generally unsuccessful or inconclusive at best. The Desert Research Institute continues to do some cloud seeding in mostly the mountainous Western U.S. during the winter months. You can see a list of past modification programs * here * in the NOAA library including filing a report if you believe you are seeing weather modification happening(!)
Personally - in the end... my opinion on most if not all forms of weather modification is that such experimentation should be approached very cautiously, if at all. I have a two-fold concern:
(1) “messing” with Mother Nature could result in upsetting the balance that natural weather changes attempt to equalize....
(2) & - most of all - unintended & unexpected consequences.
Tracking ocean & beach seaweed or sargassum. The University of South FL & NASA continue to work together to track and predict Sargassum Seaweed drift. Experimental Weekly Sargassum Inundation Index * here * ... general information * here *. Sargassum or ocean sea weed (brown algae) occurs year-round in our oceans but becomes more prevalent when oceans are warmer. The sargassum peak for the beaches of NE Florida & SE Georgia is typically Sept.-Oct. But there are already some large patches forming over the Atlantic & Caribbean & there has been an above average amount of sea weed on local beaches the past couple of weeks. While sargassum is natural & an important refuge & food source for some marine life, it can be a nuisance on the beaches - a strong odor + lots of flies.
May night skies (Sky & Telescope):
May 5–6 (all night): The modest Eta Aquariid meteor shower is expected to peak. Viewing is best 2 hours before dawn.
May 10 (morning): The waxing gibbous Moon is 1° below Spica, in Virgo.
May 13 (evening): Look low in the southeast to catch the waning gibbous Moon and Antares rising together just ½° apart.
May 22 (morning): As they climb in the east-southeast, the waning crescent Moon trails Saturn by 3½°. Venus blazes to their lower left.
May 23 (morning): The thin lunar crescent, Saturn, and Venus adorn the predawn eastern horizon in a graceful arc.
May 29 (evening): The waxing lunar crescent is 5° below Pollux. They soon disappear below west-northwestern horizon.
May 31 (evening): The Moon, now higher, greets Mars for the second time this month. The Earthlit lunar crescent sits 4° right of the Red Planet in the west.
Moon Phases
First Quarter May 4 9:52 a.m. EDT
Full Moon May 12 12:56 p.m. EDT (Full Flower Moon; also Milk Moon or Corn Planting Moon)
Last Quarter May 20 7:59a.m. EDT
New Moon May 26 11:02 p.m. EDT
