Michael spoke with Politifact the day before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida to help debunk social media conspiracy theories that pictures of unusual and visually striking cloud patterns are evidence that the government is “geoengineering” hurricanes. You can read some of the highlights below, or check out the full fact check at Politifact.
Michael Diamond, Florida State University assistant professor of meteorology, and Erik Nielsen, instructional assistant professor at Texas A&M University’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, identified these clouds as asperitas — rare clouds that “resemble rippling ocean waves in the sky.”
There is no established explanation why these clouds form, according to the U.K. Met Office, but “atmospheric conditions must be unstable.” They don’t produce rainfall but typically appear after thunderstorms, the office said.
“(Asperitas) clouds are associated with thunderstorms but don’t produce storms themselves,” Diamond said. “These clouds cannot be formed through geoengineering or cloud seeding, to our present knowledge.”
Diamond also pointed out that Hurricane Milton was still far from the coast when these claims were made.
This video doesn’t show geoengineering occurring as Hurricane Milton approaches Florida. We rate that Pants on Fire!
Factcheck by Loreben Tuquero, 10/8/2024
Diamond group @ Florida State 