imagine being able to stop this:

We can make snow for mountain ski resorts, we can “seed” clouds to help create rain and snow, but can we really control the weather?

Recently I watched a made-for-tv movie touching on this topic. In the movie a group of meteorologists were trying various methods of controlling hurricanes. They injected chemicals in attempts to freeze the supercooled wather of a hurricane and stop it. In the movie they ended up making it stronger but at the same time changing its course. They also created a storm on the west coast that gained strength, as well as causing wide-spred flooding, as it traversed the nation with intentions of hitting a hurricane that was bearing down on the east coast head-on and dissipating it.

The scenario seemed a bit silly to me but I did a bit of research and found that indeed, many people seem to think the weather can eventually be controlled by scientific means.

The United States government funded Project Storyfury from 1962-1983 which attempted to control tropical storms by administering silver iodide into the storms in hope that it would cause supercooled water to freeze and in turn disrupt the storm.

In a August 2005 article from ABC News, the prospect of coating the sea in front of an oncoming hurricane with oil or a soapy substance, and in effect, stopping it was argued.

This month, the Discovery Channel aired a program entitled, Can We Control the Weather?, in which this topic was discussed in depth. If you are interested in viewing the program the next air date is August 26th at 7:00 p.m. (CST)

Hurricane Dean, a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of over 160 Mph, is hours from landfall off the Yucatan peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. It will cause untold damage. If hurricanes like this one could be stopped imagine the possibilities. The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina would have never happened. This may all be a pipe dream but it is still worth thinking about.

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