By MELISSA GOLDIN
As authorities seek for victims of the flash floods in Texas that killed greater than 100 individuals over the Fourth of July vacation weekend, social media customers are spreading false claims that the devastation was attributable to climate modification.
Many pointed to at least one course of particularly, blaming cloud seeding carried out on July 2 by a California-based firm for the tragedy.
However officers say there isn’t a proof that the floods are the results of cloud seeding and specialists agree that cloud seeding wouldn’t end in precipitation of this magnitude.
Right here’s a more in-depth have a look at the details.
CLAIM: A July 2 cloud seeding operation by Rainmaker Expertise Company precipitated flash floods within the Texas Hill Nation over the Fourth of July vacation weekend.
THE FACTS: That is false. It isn’t attainable that cloud seeding generated the floods, in line with specialists, as the method can solely produce restricted precipitation utilizing clouds that exist already. Forecasts predicted rain for that weekend previous to July 2 in an space that was already vulnerable to flooding.
“The declare that cloud seeding performed a job on this tragic occasion is full nonsense,” mentioned Andrew Dessler, director of Texas A&M College’s Texas Middle for Excessive Climate.
Dev Niyogi, a professor on the College of Texas at Austin who research excessive climate, mentioned it’s “extraordinarily unlikely” cloud seeding performed a job within the floods. He cited climate elements as the rationale: “the moisture move coming into the world and the widespread rains the system had, in addition to the forecast of very heavy rains over the broader space.”
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas mentioned at a press briefing on Monday that “to one of the best of my data, there may be zero proof of something associated to something like climate modification” when requested about such hypothesis. He added: “The web is an odd place. Folks can provide you with all types of loopy theories.”
Nonetheless, social media customers questioned whether or not Rainmaker’s operations might be linked to the catastrophe in Texas.
“Nicely … that is bizarre … An organization known as Rainmaker, carried out a cloud seeding mission on July 2 over Texas Hill Nation,” reads one X submit. “2 days later, the worst flood of their historical past occurred … in the very same space that the Rainmaker flights had been. The whole objective of Rainmaker is to extend the precipitation of present clouds. Why can we let these firms f — okay with the climate?”
Many posts additionally famous Rainmaker’s connection to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who cofounded the data-mining outfit Palantir Applied sciences, a secretive firm that has lengthy relied on spies, police, and the navy as its prospects. The Thiel Basis awarded Rainmaker founder and CEO Augustus Doricko $100,000 in 2024 as a part of its fellowship program.
Cloud seeding makes use of a man-made materials — usually silver iodide — to induce precipitation or clear fog. The observe is an imprecise endeavor with combined outcomes.
Dessler defined that “cloud seeding can work in sure restricted conditions and produce very modest will increase in precipitation,” however usually delivers nothing.”
Regardless, the method can not create storms out of skinny air. Ken Leppert, an affiliate professor of atmospheric science on the College of Louisiana Monroe, mentioned it “had completely nothing” to do with the flash floods in Texas.
“Cloud seeding works by including aerosols to present clouds,” he mentioned. “It doesn’t work by serving to to create a cloud/storm that doesn’t exist already. The storms that produced the rainfall and flooding in Texas weren’t in existence two days earlier than the occasion.”
The Texas Hill Nation, within the central a part of the state, is naturally vulnerable to flash flooding because of the dry, dirt-packed areas the place the soil lets rain skid alongside the floor of the panorama as an alternative of soaking it up.
After a flood watch discover was issued noon on July 3, the Nationwide Climate Service issued an pressing warning in a single day for at the least 30,000 individuals. The July 4 flash floods began with a very dangerous storm that dropped most of its 12 inches of rain at midnight early morning hours. There was a lot rain that the Guadalupe River rose greater than it has in 93 years by nearly a foot, in line with native reviews.
“The pure catastrophe within the Texan Hill Nation is a tragedy. My prayers are with Texas,” Doricko, the Rainmaker CEO, wrote as a part of a sequence of X posts. “Rainmaker didn’t function within the affected space on the third or 4th or contribute to the floods that occurred over the area.”
He mentioned Rainmaker’s final cloud seeding operation previous to the floods occurred within the early afternoon on July 2 over japanese parts of south-central Texas. Two clouds had been seeded and remained within the sky for about two hours earlier than dissipating. Rainmaker suspended its cloud seeding operations indefinitely the identical day in response to “unusually excessive moisture content material.”
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