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Advances in technology could allow humans to disrupt or direct natural disasters like hurricanes, according to a new study published June 24 in the journal PLOS Water.
If that sounds like far-fetched science fiction, some scientists would agree with you. But the study authors say humans need to harness technology to control the world’s weather before it’s too late.
“The increasing impact of extreme weather events on society highlights that traditional approaches such as dams, levees, and insurance may not be sufficient to address the widespread effects of these hazards,” the authors said.
The solution they propose is to use existing technology (often used to extract rain from clouds) and enhance it with high-tech data and analytics. If done correctly, humans may be able to disrupt large weather systems and protect populated areas.
In the study, scientists found that if a small, carefully timed cloud-seeding operation had been carried out several days before the peak of the extreme weather event, it could have shifted the path of 2012 Superstorm Sandy by about 300 miles and moved New York into New York. They suggested it may have missed the city, raising the minimum temperature of the 2021 Texas freeze by about 18 degrees Fahrenheit and reducing atmospheric river-borne precipitation by about 300 miles in 2022, which caused flooding in California. 5%.
Critics say this is a far-fetched idea with little evidence.
Katja Friedrich, assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado, told USA TODAY in an email that “no scientific evidence currently exists” to support the idea that existing cloud seeding technologies “can modify large-scale weather systems, especially severe weather systems such as hurricanes and thunderstorms that are driven by large dynamic forcings.”
Weather “Jiu-jitsu”
The study authors say they are hopeful that the study will yield results. They use the martial art of jiu-jitsu as an analogy.
“The fundamental principle of Jiu-Jitsu is to achieve maximum efficiency with minimum effort,” study co-author Upmanu Lal of Arizona State University said in an email to USA TODAY. “It’s based on the basic philosophy that smaller, weaker people can defend themselves against larger, stronger attackers by using leverage, proper weight distribution, and momentum rather than strength.”
The authors believe that humans may be able to change the course of huge weather events simply by leveraging a few tools at our disposal.
Controversial cloud seeding at the center of research proposal
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), cloud seeding is a decades-old approach to climate modification that uses a variety of supporting technologies for research and operations.
Nine U.S. states currently use it, but 10 states have banned or are considering bans on cloud seeding or weather modification in general, according to the GAO. This includes Florida, which banned it in 2025.
The most common use of cloud seeding is to increase precipitation or suppress hail, usually by adding fine particles of silver iodide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Cloud seeding alone is not enough
For the study’s theory to work, Lal said, it would require a high density of observations available in near real time, an AI model that can quickly process them to identify suitable locations for nudges, and a mechanism for delivering the nudges.
And researchers aren’t even sure that cloud seeding is the right technology to physically move weather systems.
“We are developing the best technology to deliver nudges,” Lal said. “Very large-scale cloud-seeding efforts at the right time and place are a possible mechanism, but not necessarily definitive.”
Previous research on this topic has proven difficult. Researchers tried something similar decades ago with cloud seeding to weaken hurricanes, but found it difficult to measure the experiment’s effectiveness.
The researchers found that “distinguishing the effects of human intervention from the natural variability of hurricanes is very difficult,” Kara Lamb, an associate researcher at Columbia University, said in an email to USA TODAY.
But the study authors hope that modern technology and AI computing will make future efforts more successful.
controversy after controversy
In the best-case scenario, the concept of commanding a natural disaster becomes an ethical dilemma.
Saving New York City from a direct hit could theoretically put the people of New England at risk. Is it ethical?
The authors say that’s a problem for others in the future.
“We are focused on science and engineering capacity building for now, and we are aware of the ethics and management issues, but that is not our focus at the moment,” Lal said.
Critics say the bar is extremely high.
Storms involve complex flows that occur over a wide area and evolve in complex ways. “And even if humans were able to move the storm, it would never happen because the political, international, and legal implications would be so large,” Robert Lauber, director emeritus of the University of Illinois’ School of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences, said in an email.
Past cloud seeding controversy
Cloud seeding is currently at the center of a surge in conspiracy theories about weather control after disasters such as the tragic 2025 Texas floods that killed dozens of people, many of them children. After the flood, claims that nearby cloud-seeding efforts caused the disaster went viral, according to CBS News. Meteorologists said there was “zero evidence” to support that claim and that seeding would only slightly increase rainfall and would not cause catastrophic flooding.
Internationally, social media widely condemned cloud seeding after record rainfall and flooding occurred in the United Arab Emirates in April 2024, according to AFP. However, scientists and officials said no outbreak of the species occurred during the storm, pointing instead to natural weather systems and climate change.
Doyle Rice is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, focusing on weather and climate.
