When I heard the term “weather modification”, my first thought was: conspiracy. But after about 30 seconds of research, I discovered it was a legitimate subject that is rooted in real science. The American Meteorological Society defines weather modification as “the intentional or inadvertent alteration of weather by human agency.” But how is this done, and more impotantly, who is responsible for it? The Department of Defense has categorized Weather Modification into 2 distinct types: benign and hostile. Let’s dive deeper.
Benign Weather Modification (Sort of)
Project Cirrus– October 13, 1947
In 1947, a hurricane swirled in the Atlantic off of the Florida coast; two scientists, Dr. Irving and Dr. Shaefer, were about to conduct a groundbreaking experiment. A year earlier, Dr. Shaefer had discovered he could seed clouds in a freezer using dry ice.
His hypothesis regarding this upcoming experiment was: if dry ice could be introduced into the hurricane, it could cause particles to form nuclei around evaporating water droplets, which then would attract a multitude of other water droplets, gaining mass, and eventually transcending into heavy rain drops or even snow. The experimental opportunity was at hand. Being dispatched by government authority, the team of weather modifiers armed two B-17 bombers with a total of 170 lbs of dry ice, and took off. Destination: Hurricane King. The bellies of the planes opened, and out came the dry ice.
Next Day: Tuesday, October 14, 1947
As Shaefer and Irving searched in the sky the following day, they were astonished to find the hurricaine 100 miles west, tearing through the city of Savannah, GA. A man’s life lost and $2 million dollars worth of damage had started public outrage. Not long after, the operation was shut down. But every cloud has a silver lining. The operation was a success. It was possible to influence the weather in ways never seen before, and even better for the weather modifiers: silver iodide an even better substance for cloud seeding was just uncovered. Though it resulted in strife, it seemed to lay the foundation for weather modification to come.
Hostile Weather Modification: Weather Weapons
Project Popeye-October 1966, Vietnam
In the midst of the bloody, controversial, and historical Vietnam War, the idea of weather modification seemed to re-surface. As an alternative to constant bombings and sprayings of cancerous herbicides, weather could perhaps be impactful and also more ethical. The Ho Chi Minh Trail stretched from North to South in Vietnam and also snaked around into Laos and Cambodia. It was possibly the greatest strategical asset for the VietCong (the North Vietnemese.) Providing transport of soldiers, food, weapons, and medicine, it was the backbone of the Vietcong forces. Despite dropping millions of tons of bombs, and thousands of liters of chemicals, the trail seemed to remain in tact. But one weapon was about to be unleashed: water. The objective, was to simply “make mud not war”, forcing the military traffic of the trail to be slowed and destructive from a strong barrage of long lasting floods.
The mission was under the secret authority of the CIA and Whitehouse. The mission was simple: instigate more rainfall from the already existing monsoon season with constant cloud seeding. While dry ice had been used in the past in experiments, the more effective agent was now “silver iodide”– which would bond more effectively making it superior to dry ice seeding. 
The first seeding took place on March 20, 1967. Over the next several years the flooding wreaked havoc on the Ho Chi Minh Trail; supply lines, underground tunnels, and hideouts were washed out, soldiers forced to backtrack, and strategic plans dissolved amongst the torrents of water and mud.
Eventually, evidence of the secretive operations were leaked out into the public news columns. As environmentalism grew, so did the outrage on the government’s hidden operations. Court hearings were scheduled, officials were interviewed, the Whitehouse and CIA were attacked and the people grew angry. The pressure from the people led to the Department of Defense declassifying documents on Project Popeye, and after a series of whistleblower testimonies, the operation was shut down.
But this raises a question? Is weather modification still being used as a weapon of war today?
What do you think and why?
Works Cited:
Cirrus
https://media.defense.gov/2017/Dec/28/2001861722/-1/-1/0/T_COBLE_BENIGN_WEATHER_MODIFICATION.PDF
https://alachuacounty.us/Depts/epd/EPAC/General%20Electric%20History%20Of%20Project%20Cirrus%20July%201952%20ORIGINAL.pdf
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v28/d274#:~:text=DOD%20scientists%20consider%20that%20the,the%20operation%20of%20vehicles%20impracticable.
https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/benchmarks-october-13-1947-disaster-project-cirrus/
https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/ua902-010aspace_5ffdd0d7156d14616da5066f040d4f1f
https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hurricane_blog/70th-anniversary-of-the-first-hurricane-seeding-experiment/
Popeye
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v28/d274
https://www.popsci.com/operation-popeye-government-weather-vietnam-war/
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/3/brown.php
https://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/origins-ecocide-revisiting-ho-chi-minh-trail-vietnam-war
