Weather modification - Playing God with the weather

Article purpose: Highlight a need for transparency in weather modification practices both in the United States and throughout the world as part of water rights which is interconnected and problematic for Interstate and internationally.

This committee meeting was about cloud seeding, weather modification, our EPA exposing an honest assessment of what the United States' use of cloud seeding both for commercial and a history of military use of weather modification before a United Nations treaty in 1976. This article talks about this committee meeting and also relates the international use of weather modification and also highlights that the United Nations has banned the military use of weather modification and other hostile use of modifying the environment.

Committee Chair's introduction for meeting (Sept. 16th 2025)

Ms Greene explained:

"Silver or lead iodide is used to try to increase rainfall in a specific location."

We plan to try to head off global warming

Remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Block the rays of the sun from hitting the earth

United States' Federal government history of weather modification

(1947) Military and General Electric - Project Cirrus

GE Labs worked with the Naval Research Laboratory and Army Signal Corps to intercept a hurricane off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida this project was know as Project Cirrus where they would carry out experiments using our US Air Force aircraft, two B-17s and a B-29 to observe, would seed clouds and fog using dry ice to see how this would affect the hurricane. They dumped 180 pounds of dry ice total. 80 pounds of dry ice over 100 miles and then 2 additional 50 pound dumps in single locations. The hurricane turned 135 degrees increased in intensity and hit Savana, Georgia causing 2 million dollars in damage in Georgia and South Carolina and killing one person.

More about Article on Project Cirrus and later StormFury (Noaa.gov )

(1950s and 1960s) US Army chemical fog in Saint Louis Missouri

US army admitted to spraying mysterious chemical fog over Saint Louis, Missouri neighborhood which residents now claim this is giving them cancer.

(1960s and 1970s) Project Stormfury - weaken hurricanes

Seeding clouds with silver iodide to weaken hurricanes.

In 1962 operation STORMFURY was the U.S. Weather Bureau and Department of Defense using Silver iodide to weaken the eye of hurricanes effectively lessening the intensity of storms. These were a series of silver iodide releases into storms over the Atlantic ocean far from land with the goal of lessening the wind speed and overall impact of the storms. They would modify Hurricanes Esther (1961), Beulah (1963), Debbie (1969), and Ginger (1971) seeding the convective clouds outside of each hurricane’s eyewall with silver iodide which would weakened the circulation of the storm.

Science of Project Stormfury (Noaa.gov)

Stormfury - Seeding silver iodide to create a new larger eye of the storm to lessen the wind speed

(1966) Operation Popeye - weaponizing the weather

Create monsoons to aid our military during the Vietnam war. The Vietnam war took place from 1955 - 1975.

More about Operation Popeye (State.gov)

Commercializing Weather Modification

Hedge Capitalists invest in companies like "Make sunsets" to inject aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight back into space.

Clear Skies Act

The Clear Skies act was develope to regulate weather modification.

Read more about the Clear Skies act at Congress.gov:

Playing God with the Weather - Youtube video

Weather Modification regulation in the United States

Only 2 states, Tennessee and Florida, currently ban weather modification. Currently, as of 6-10-2026, there are currently 18 states that have for-profit companies which operate unregulated.

Ranking member Ms. Stansbury agrees with most of the sentiment about weather modification and looks to regulate weather modification through the EPA.

States that have banned Weather modification

Florida - Banned on July 1, 2025 - Florida Senate bill 56 prohibits the intentional injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere to alter temperature, weather, climate, or sunlight intensity.
Tennessee - Banned on April 11, 2024 but law implemented on July 1, 2024 through HB 2063/SB 2691 - prohibits the intentional injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals and substances into the atmosphere with the purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of sunlight. In 2025 an amendment was made trying to also classify Commercial weather modification as violations to the consumer protection act allowing stricter penalties. Later Title 47 after committee this law did not pass in TN.

States which allow Weather Modification

Arizona - Allowed and increasingly utilized as a method to provide drought relief.
California - Managed by local water districts, utilities, and counties to boost Sierra Nevada snowpack.
Colorado - Heavily supported by state and local agencies to enhance mountain snowfall.
Idaho - Operated by the Idaho Water Resource Board and partnered with Utah to seed targeted clouds.
Montana - Permits cloud seeding for water resource management, while specifically banning other forms of stratospheric geoengineering
Nevada - Directed by the Desert Research Institute to stretch natural water supplies.
New Mexico - Uses state and local funds to increase precipitation in targeted basins.
North Dakota - State-sponsored Atmospheric Resource Board for summer rain and hail suppression.
Pennsylvania (Senate Bill 508 referred to Agriculture and rural affairs Committee - March 21 2025)

An Act prohibiting solar radiation modification or sunlight reflection methods, cloud seeding and polluting atmospheric interventions within this Commonwealth; imposing duties on the Pennsylvania State Police and sheriffs; and imposing penalties.

Existing Law: The state already has a 1967 law requiring any cloud seeding activities to be licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, though state officials have confirmed no applications have ever been submitted.

I see mindfully placed Contrails: EPA on Contrails

Texas - Local water and conservation districts periodically fund cloud seeding for rain enhancement and groundwater recharge.
Utah - One of the most heavily funded states, operating extensive programs across its watersheds.
Wyoming - Conducts large-scale projects targeting major mountain ranges to increase snowpack.

United Nations prohibits military use of weather as a weapon

UN created a 1976 convention prohibiting "military or any other hostile use of environmental modification techniques".

Learn more about this Disarmament clause from United Nations convention treaty 1978

International use of weather modification

China

In 2008, China used it to try to stop rain from falling on Beijing's Olympic stadium.
Sky River initiative in 2018 with the aim of alleviating water shortages and boosting the country's food security. Some are concerned about it may take away water from India needed for their needs downstream of the Tibetan plateau.

France (Hail-to-rain)

Rhone region uses a system to both detect and then release calcium salt-filled balloons to change hail to rain to protect hectares of grapes across France.

Learn more in AFPs youtube channel article:

Make it rain: French winemakers fight hail storms with science (AFP)

Read more about the international uses of weather modification:

Concerns over push for more rain (France24.com)

Weather Modification by (Country, purpose, seeding agent, distribution method)

International Cloud Seeding (GAO 2024 report)

Methods of Geoengineering

Silver Iodide - (Cloud Seeding / Glaciogenic Seeding)

Application (Chem trails) Silver iodide particles are introduced into supercooled clouds (below freezing) via aircraft or ground generators.
How it works (heterogeneous nucleation) silver iodide's crystalline structure is similar to ice, since it is similar water vapor sticks to this seeded structure forming ice crystals that snowball and grow, then fall as precipitation / rain.
Noteworthy: Silver iodide is 8 times more diamagnetic than Sodium Chloride (Salt), some people report getting head aches when Silver iodide is sprayed in the sky above. Sometimes the patterns in the sky are marking with an X instead of linear cloud seeding.

EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency)

Application - aircraft or ground generators seed atomized water droplets
How it works - electrical charge applied to positively charged water droplets which were seeded into the cloud, this draws the oppositely charged native cloud droplets. The electrostatic attraction consolidates the water vapor droplets that merge eventually growing large enough to fall as rain.

Agricultural and atmospheric engineers are trying to use this as a method of rainmaking without chemicals.

Calcium Salt (Hygroscopic)

Application Localized Balloons, Aircraft, UAS, ground generators
How it works - Salt makes water not freeze at the normal freezing temperature around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, this effectively "melts" halt as it lowers the necessary temperature threshold were water changes into ice which trigger rain but effectively prevents halt damage to agricultural (Grapes in France)

Ionization

Application ground-based antennas which emit negative ions into the atmosphere
How it works - charging aerosols which trigger static attraction, then condensation, enhancing cloud growth and precipitation without chemicals like silver iodide

Aerosol Charging: ions attach to natural airborne dust and humidity particles, giving them an electrical charge.

Additional Resources Geoengineering Terms from the EPA

EPA.gov - Geoengineering additional Resources

GAO - Cloud Seeding Technology Assessing Effectiveness and Other Challenges (GAO-25-107328)

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