Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 23/10/2024; Author: Marija Manojlović
Conspiracy theories about Hurricane “Milton” are spreading on social media, with claims that it was artificially created to influence the U.S. presidential election or to support a plan for creating 15-minute cities. These claims are accompanied by inauthentic photos.
On October 10, 2024, a photo allegedly showing Hurricane “Milton” from space was shared on Facebook. The photo was accompanied by a description suggesting that the hurricane was artificially created, with reasons tied to the U.S. presidential election and an alleged plan to transform Tampa, Florida, into a so-called 15-minute city.
Images of Hurricane Milton from space: The largest storm in the Gulf of Mexico in over 100 years, which surely didn’t appear coincidentally right before the U.S. elections.
The destruction of Florida opens the door to discussions about climate change right before the election.
Millions of Floridians may not be able to return home and therefore won’t vote (of course, this doesn’t affect Democratic Miami).
There are already plans to rebuild the destroyed Tampa Bay into a 15-minute smart city (Agenda 2030).
The source is in the comment section
They have the technology to influence the weather. They use weather as a weapon.
The comment shared a year-old recording from the podcast featuring Elana Freeland, author of several books on “chemtrails”, HAARP, and geoengineering.
The identical photo was posted on October 10 in a short video, along with two other images of a hurricane from space, on a private Facebook profile (archived) and in a public Facebook group (archived). The claims accompanying this video are identical to those from the previous post.
What are the facts?
After Hurricane “Helene”, Florida faced Hurricane “Milton” on October 9. It made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, with winds over 160 km/h and heavy rainfall. As it moved inland, “Milton” retained Category 1 strength. More than 30 deaths in Florida are attributed to this hurricane. Prior to “Milton’s” arrival, over a million people were ordered to evacuate in Florida.
However, the photo in the analyzed post does not show this hurricane from space. It has been available online since 2022. A reverse search found it on the Adobe Stock photo website, where it was uploaded on July 29, 2022. The description in German states the following: “Hurricane over the sea, generative artificial intelligence”. Copyright is attributed to Scheidle-Design. Reviewing this account revealed that Scheidle-Design publishes AI-generated content.
Voice of America’s Spanish-language fact-checking department and the American fact-checking platform Snopes have written about the false claims that this photo shows Hurricane “Milton” from space. Snopes’ analysis mentions that several AI detection tools assessed it as likely AI-generated.
A hurricane cannot be “made”
The analyzed posts imply that Hurricane “Milton” was not a natural event but was artificially induced. It’s suggested that it was caused due to the U.S. elections, to disrupt voting in areas of Florida that traditionally vote Republican and to allegedly advance a plan to create a so-called 15-minute city following the destruction caused by the hurricane in Tampa Bay.
All these claims do not make sense for one simple reason: it is impossible to control weather at this scale. Hurricane “Milton”, which hit Florida, was a natural phenomenon that was tracked after its formation, and its path over Florida was forecasted. As mentioned, an evacuation order was issued for one million residents of this state before it made landfall.
Less than a week earlier, the United States was hit by Hurricane “Helene”. This hurricane also spurred many conspiracy theories and disinformation. Raskrinkavanje previously addressed false claims that Hurricane “Helene” was artificially induced.
Large-scale weather events, like hurricanes, cannot be artificially created or controlled. Commenting on claims that Hurricane “Helene” was triggered by HAARP and NEXRAD technologies, Dr. Howard Diamond, director of NOAA’s Division for Atmospheric Sciences and Modeling, told Lead Stories:
“Neither HAARP nor NEXRAD can control hurricanes; no human technology can create, destroy, modify, enhance, or direct hurricanes in any way”.
NEXRAD (The Next Generation Weather Radar) is a network of 160 high-resolution Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the U.S. Air Force, designed for gathering precipitation and wind data for mapping rainfall. HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is a high-frequency, high-power transmitter in Alaska, used by the University of Alaska for scientific research on the ionosphere.
Commenting on the claims about the artificial origin of Hurricane “Milton”, Suzana Camargo from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told the BBC:
“Based on current knowledge and technology, there is no way to use geoengineering to modify hurricanes”.
As previously explained in another analysis, hurricane modification was indeed the subject of U.S. government-backed research in Project “Cirrus” in 1947 and Project “Stormfury”, which was discontinued in 1983 due to inconclusive results. These attempts aimed to weaken these meteorological phenomena, thereby reducing material damage and casualties, not to direct or manage them for the purpose of causing harm.
On the U.S. National Weather Service website, the conditions for hurricane formation are explained. The same source notes that over three years, about five hurricanes have struck the U.S. coast. Florida is the most frequently hit state, with more than 41% of the 292 hurricanes hitting the U.S. since 1851 also affecting Florida. This is due to its location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, making it vulnerable to hurricanes from both sides.
The hurricane and the elections
Voters will elect a new U.S. president on November 5. The Republican Party has nominated Donald Trump, and the Democratic candidate is Kamala Harris. Early voting has begun in most states, starting in Florida on October 21.
The analyzed post claims that the hurricane did not “appear in the Gulf of Mexico before the elections” by chance, suggesting that millions of Floridians “may not be able to return home and therefore won’t vote”. The statement that “this obviously does not affect Democratic Miami” implies that this is a way to deprive the Republican candidate of votes.
Claims that hurricanes deliberately target areas with Republican advantages are also popular outside our region. In this context, Florida and North Carolina are mentioned. DW reported on this in an analysis on October 10, stating that both states have taken measures to allow people from affected areas to vote.
In North Carolina, the bipartisan State Election Board unanimously approved a list of emergency measures to help those affected by “Helene” vote. There are also exceptions for identification requirements if “a voter within 100 days of the election was a victim of a natural disaster declared by the U.S. president or the governor of North Carolina”.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order after Hurricane “Helene” to give the hardest-hit counties more flexibility in mail ballot distribution and polling place changes. However, DeSantis refused to extend the voter registration deadline, a request made by civil rights and voting rights organizations. A Florida district judge also declined to reopen voter registration, as stated by the League of Women Voters of Florida.
After Hurricane “Milton” hit Florida, the media reported new measures for hurricane-affected areas.
Thus, while Hurricane “Milton” made election preparation and organization difficult, various measures were clearly taken to ensure or facilitate voting for residents of the affected areas.
Tampa as a “15-minute city”?
In the analyzed posts, Hurricane “Milton” is linked to an alleged plan to transform Tampa (a city in Tampa Bay on Florida’s west coast) into a so-called 15-minute city.
The urban concept of 15-minute cities has long been the subject of conspiracy theories that wrongly depict it as an attempt to “lock in” residents or restrict their rights and freedoms to control the population. Raskrinkavanje has previously addressed this topic in past analyses (1, 2). As we previously explained, the concept is actually based on the idea that basic necessities and services (such as markets, municipal offices, police stations, health facilities, etc.) should be accessible within a 15-minute walk or short bike ride.
Claims that Hurricane “Milton” is part of a plan to turn Tampa into a “15-minute city” have also been popular outside our region. This issue was addressed by the fact-checking platform PolitiFact. In an analysis published on October 9, PolitiFact notes:
Tampa officials are taking steps to address traffic issues. After years of surveys and feedback gathering, Mayor Jane Castor launched a $2 billion, 30-year strategic plan called ‘Tampa MOVES’ in 2023. This plan aims for a higher number of people using public transit in Tampa by 2050, shorter commutes, lower transportation costs, and zero road deaths or injuries.
The plan estimated that in 2021, Tampa residents had an average 25-minute commute to work. The goal is to reduce this time to 15 minutes or less by 2050. PolitiFact reached out to Tampa city officials for comment but did not receive a response before publishing.
This platform’s analysis indicates that Hurricanes “Helene” and “Milton” formed naturally and are unrelated to the 15-minute city concept. So, local authorities in Tampa are indeed taking steps to address traffic issues aimed at increasing the number of public transit passengers and reducing commute times from home to work, but the claims that the hurricane was deliberately caused to turn Tampa into a “15-minute city” are meaningless, as it’s impossible to create a hurricane.
Therefore, we rate the initial post claiming that a photo from 2022 shows Hurricane “Milton” from space as fake news.
The implication that Hurricane “Milton” was artificially triggered—either to influence the elections or to implement a plan for creating a “15-minute city” in Tampa—receives the ratings of fake news and a conspiracy theory. Other posts making these claims are rated as a distribution of fake news and a conspiracy theory.
