Hurricane Milton: What are the conspiracy theories?

After ripping done Florida, Hurricane Milton – the second-most almighty tropical cyclone ever recorded successful the Gulf of Mexico – has moved into the Atlantic Ocean.

Despite the hurricane’s wide reported effects, a increasing fig of conspiracy theorists person been spreading misinformation astir the legitimacy of the hurricane’s origins, impact, and rescue efforts online.

Here is simply a roundup of the astir salient mendacious claims surrounding Hurricane Milton.

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed connected societal media that the US authorities “can power the weather”. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to prevarication and accidental it can’t beryllium done,” she continued.

Despite it being intolerable for the authorities to make a hurricane, Ms Greene has doubled down connected her proposition aft receiving a question of backlash, publishing screenshots of “weather modification task reports” to her X account.

US President Joe Biden responded to Ms Greene’s claims: “It’s beyond ridiculous. It’s truthful stupid. It’s got to stop,” helium told reporters astatine the White House.

Cloud seeding is simply a upwind modification method which aims to change a cloud’s quality to nutrient snowfall and rain. It tin beryllium done by utilizing craft to present “ice nuclei” to peculiar types of clouds.

The reports that Ms Greene referenced online were from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The organisation experimented with the method successful the ’60s and ’80s successful an effort to trim the spot of winds; however, the experimentation did not work.

Similar theories of unreality seeding arose erstwhile Dubai flooded successful April. The UAE has said that it has utilized the method successful the past to effort to code h2o shortages successful the country.

Speaking with the BBC, Jill Trepanier, an utmost upwind adept astatine Louisiana State University, said that unreality seeding would not person been utilized successful this instance.

She explained that unreality seeding is needed erstwhile determination are not capable aerosols oregon h2o vapour wrong the ambiance for condensation to occur. “Over the occidental Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche, that is not a problem. The Earth volition marque a hurricane each connected its own,” she said.

Another conspiracy mentation that has dispersed online since Hurricane Helene – a smaller hurricane that deed Florida and Georgia astatine the extremity of September – is that authorities wealth acceptable speech for earthy disasters has been spent connected amerciable migrants.

These claims person been amplified by erstwhile president Donald Trump, who has claimed that his hostile successful the statesmanlike race, Kamala Harris, “spent each her Fema wealth – billions of dollars – connected lodging for amerciable migrants”. Fema stands for the Federal Emergency Agency, which is simply a authorities bureau that holds a disaster-relief money meant for earthy disasters.

Fema has brandished Trump’s claims arsenic “false” and stated that “no wealth is being diverted from catastrophe effect needs”. It has besides published a fact-checking leafage connected its website.

With the devastation caused by the hurricane heavy reported on, artificially created images depicting Disney World Orlando submerged underwater person been spread connected societal media by a fig of accounts, including a Russian quality agency.

While Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, and Sea World person closed owed to the hurricane, determination person been nary reports of flooding.