Cloud Seeding & Texas Floods: Facts Vs. Conspiracy Theories

Cloud seeding is a climate alteration approach that includes introducing dust or aerosol particles into clouds in the environment to activate added rainfall. Cloud seeding is frequently used to increase precipitation, and it is used in Texas as a rain-enhancement technique.

In 1981, a slow-moving relocating tornado over Austin created Shoal Creek– a waterway off the Colorado River– to flooding, eliminating 13 people. The Guadalupe River formerly flooded in July 1987, when Hurricane Amelia moved inland and dropped torrential rain in Texas Hill Nation. In 2015, the Blanco River’s rapid surge created floods that eliminated 11 people near Wimberley, Texas, a city southwest of Austin and about 80 miles east of Kerrville.

Deadly Floods in Texas: A History

In the early morning hours of July 4, the National Weather condition Solution Austin issued flash flooding warnings, prior to the warnings were updated to an uncommon flash flood emergency alert at around 4 a.m. Between 4 and 7 a.m., the Guadalupe River rose.

The business’s CEO stated its last cloud seeding activities were July 2, and the two clouds seeded dissipated between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. that same day– more than 24-hour before the tornado that created deadly flooding.

Uma Bhatt, a College of Alaska Fairbanks climatic science professor, stated she thought it was not likely cloud seeding might have triggered the Texas rainfall due to the fact that the tornado was “so energetic and large scale.”.

Cloud Seeding Under Scrutiny After Flooding

The residues of Tropical Storm Barry dropping intense moisten a flood-prone area created the calamity, meteorologists said. Cloud seeding could not have actually created the calamity because the procedure raises precipitation only by a percentage, professionals claimed.

Cloud seeding, the process of introducing fragments into a cloud to enhance rainfall, could not have created the catastrophe since the procedure boosts precipitation just by a small amount, they stated.

Firemens from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, tons a body into a boating as they plan for a water healing along the Guadalupe River days after a flash flood brushed up through the area, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. (AP).

Experts Debunk Cloud Seeding Link

Greene’s recommended legislation and connected social networks messages show historical conspiracy theory theories that weather modification modern technology has created calamities, such as hurricanes. The theories overemphasize the capabilities of existing weather condition adjustment efforts and overlook the atmospheric and geological conditions in Texas that created the extreme, dangerous flooding.

Federal lawrequires any individual with plans to modify the weather condition using techniques such as cloud seeding technology to report their strategies to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Management manager at least 10 days prior to any type of activity. NOAA’s internet site states records are generally offered about 2 months after the end of the financial quarter. (The current fiscal quarter began July 1.).

Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko responded in an X thread that the firm “did not run in the afflicted location on the 4th or 3rd or add to the floods that happened over the area.” Rainmaker Modern technology Corp. had last seeded clouds on July 2, more than 1 day prior to the storm that caused the flooding, he said.

On X, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said she would certainly introduce regulation matching a 2025 Florida regulation to restrict individuals from launching compounds right into the environment “for the express objective of altering weather, sunlight, temperature level, or environment strength.”

Natural Factors Behind the Texas Floods

. The relatively completely dry region has steep hills and dirt that does not take in much water. Water from hefty rains rapidly flows into superficial creeks and those rising creeks after that put right into rivers such as the Guadalupe River, producing powerful damaging flooding waters.

Cloud seeding is “usually just carried out in desert areas where even a few tenths of an inch even more of water is extremely helpful,” Lanza stated. “It’s simply not a possibility as a result of the regulations of physics and climatic chemistry.”.

The posts asserting there is no all-natural explanation for the deadly floodings ignore a lengthy background of deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country region. It is sometimescalled “Flash Flooding Alley” since it is among the highest flash flooding danger locations in the united state

Travis Herzog, a Houston-based meteorologist, stated in a July 6 Facebook blog post that the key reason for the fatal flooding was staying moisture from what was as soon as Hurricane Barry– not cloud seeding.

“Cloud seeding can not develop a storm of this size or dimension,” Herzog said. “In reality, cloud seeding can not even produce a single cloud.

The Balcones Cliff lifts moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and can enhance rainfall prices, Lanza stated. In this case, he stated the residues of Tropical Storm Barry combined with the surface and Gulf moisture “to create tremendous rains prices of 4 to 6 inches in an hour sometimes.”.

Another July 5 X post posted screenshots of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Management paper revealing that Rainmaker Innovation Corp. was engaged in “rain improvement” in Texas, with the user claiming it was “straight over the FLOODED AREAS.”

Regulations on Weather Modification

Rainmaker Technology Corp.’s last cloud seeding efforts were July 2 and both clouds seeded dissipated between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Central Time that very same day, more than 24 hr prior to the tornado that created harmful flooding.

“The last seeding objective prior to the July 4th event was throughout the very early afternoon of July second, when a short cloud seeding mission was flown over the eastern sections of south-central Texas, and two clouds were seeded,” he created on X.

Federal lawrequires anybody with strategies to modify the weather condition using methods such as cloud seeding technology to report their strategies to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator at the very least 10 days before any kind of task. NOAA’s site claims records are typically offered about two months after the end of the fiscal quarter.” Cloud seeding can not develop a tornado of this size or size,” Herzog claimed. “In fact, cloud seeding can not also create a solitary cloud. All it can do is take an existing cloud and boost the rainfall by up to 20%.

Those clouds dissipated in between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Central Time, Doricko claimed. He added that natural clouds generally last half an hour to a couple of hours, and it’s unusual for also relentless tornado systems to maintain the same cloud structure for greater than 12 to 18 hours.

“When that water drops in the a little a lot more sturdy terrain of this area, it is primarily required down creeks and rivers at an extremely rapid price of speed and increase, bring about ruining flooding,” he said.