Beyond nukes: how scientists dream of killing hurricanes
There are even stranger ideas for how to take down a tropical cyclone than bombing it with a nuclear warhead, as President Trump suggested.
A bizarre 60-year-old idea to fight hurricanes using nuclear weapons resurfaced this week after Axios reported that President Trump raised the possibility with his national security advisors. Trump later denied the report—but regardless, he wouldn’t have been the first to propose it or other wild schemes for stopping cyclones in their tracks.
Other ideas, like using cold water pumps to reduce a hurricane’s strength or soaking up its moisture with a Jell-O-like substance, seem even more far-fetched.
Possibly the most famous attempt to slay hurricanes was Project STORMFURY, a US government-led program that ran from 1962 to 1983.
In 1949, atmospheric scientist Bernard Vonnegut showed that silver iodide could be used to enhance the formation of ice
