A video shared on Instagram claims Hurricane Lee was purportedly geoengineered by manipulating the jet streams.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence supporting the claim. An expert denied that it is possible to control weather using technology, according to USA Today.
Fact Check:
Hurricane Lee made landfall in New England and Canada with high winds and torrential rain Saturday, according to The Associated Press. The hurricane also caused power outages in both the U.S. and Canada, the outlet reported.
The Instagram video, liked over 1,000 times, claims Hurricane Lee was purportedly geo-engineered by manipulating the jet streams.
“Storms of any kind, can be engineered though manipulating of jet streams, moisture, pressure, solar radiation, seeding the atmosphere w/frequency conductive particulates, and then manipulating that particulate with EMF’s set up on land or machines stationed such as HAARP, sending million watts of RF’s into any location desired,” the video’s caption reads in part.
The claim is false, however. Check Your Fact found no credible news reports suggesting Hurricane Lee was geoengineered by manipulating the jet streams. Likewise, the claim does not appear on the National Hurricane Center’s official website, blog, or verified social media accounts. In addition, the Weather Channel has not repeated the claim about the hurricane purportedly being geo-engineered. (RELATED: Is Video Of Building Collapsing From Morocco Earthquake?)
Hugh Willoughby, who participated in Project Stormfury, a 1960s research program that sought to modify hurricanes, shot down the idea that weather can be controlled by technology, according to USA Today.
“Even a 10-megaton (hydrogen bomb) releases only about as much energy as a single thunderstorm cell,” Willoughby explained to the outlet via email. “The difference is the H-bomb releases its energy in a few microseconds whereas the thunderstorm takes half an hour. It would take many thunderstorms’ worth of energy to change the track of a hurricane,” he said.
Check Your Fact has contacted multiple geoengineering experts for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.