is a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home , a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.
As The Verge’s resident disaster writer, I’m tired of this nonsense. So let’s just get into it.
What is cloud seeding?
Cloud seeding is basically an attempt to make precipitation fall from clouds. It targets clouds that have water droplets that are essentially too light to fall. Scientists at MIT learned in the 1940s that if you inject a mineral into the cloud that’s similar to the crystalline structure of ice — typically silver iodide or salt — those small water droplets start to freeze to the mineral. This creates heavier ice particles that can eventually fall down to the ground. These days, researchers can use radar and satellite imagery to identify the right kind of clouds and then fly drones or planes into them to disperse the mineral.
Why are we talking about it now?
Cloud seeding has become a regular scapegoat for devastating flooding
Cloud seeding has become a regular scapegoat for devastating flooding events. After horrific flash floods in central Texas killed at least 120 people over the July 4th weekend, a flurry of social media posts blamed cloud seeding. One startup called Rainmaker has borne the brunt of attacks that have turned into violent threats.
“There have been death threats, both via email and online, and our team has handled that like a bunch of champs,” Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko tells The Verge, adding that the company now has security at all of its facilities “out of an abundance of caution.”
This isn’t the first time Rainmaker has faced the repercussions of misinformation about cloud seeding. It cropped up during Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain held an online “office hour” on YouTube to debunk false claims about cloud seeding following extreme rainfall in Dubai in April 2024.
But the backlash against cloud seeding has been particularly intense in the aftermath of the deadly July 4th flash floods. Doricko attributes that in part to President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn hopping on the bandwagon of lawmakers and right-wing influencers giving credence to the misleading attempts to link cloud seeding to the disaster in Texas. “Anyone who calls this out as a conspiracy theory can go F themselves,” Flynn wrote on X.
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