Denials are flooding out from “experts” and weather mod companies alike (its “safe and effective”). Yet both China and Dubai openly boast of using cloud seeding to modify the weather. Naturally the finger is pointed at that catch-all boogeyman, climate change. What do you think? MH

© Christopher Pike/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Don’t blame cloud seeding for the Dubai floods

Questions have swirled online about the process being behind the historic rainfall – but experts say it’s not the real culprit

Severe floods inundated the United Arab Emirates this week, as a storm dumped the largest amount of rainfall the country has seen in more than 75 years, the government said.

A record 254mm (10in) of rainfall dropped in Al Ain, a city bordering Oman – more than the country sees on average in a year. Highways turned to rivers as drivers abandoned stuck vehicles, homes and businesses have been damaged, and flights at one of the world’s busiest airports have been significantly disrupted. Twenty people have reportedly been killed, and the recovery is expected to be slow: in a place known for its dry desert climate and hot temperatures where rain is rare, many areas lack drainage.

While extreme weather falls in line with the patterns climate scientists have long warned about, questions have swirled about whether cloud seeding – a process that pushes clouds to produce more precipitation by releasing chemicals or salt particles into the air – could instead be to blame for the catastrophic storms...READ MORE: Don’t blame cloud seeding for the Dubai floods | Extreme weather | The Guardian

Mainstream news outlets the world over from Newshub (NZ) to the BBC are parroting the same narrative. But here’s what went down in China a few days later…

China issues ‘once in a century’ flood warning for Guangdong’s Bei River zone – April rainfall records already broken in many places

Residents in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong are on high alert for flooding, with authorities forecasting water flows in a major river to hit “once-in-100-year” levels on Monday morning.

The provincial flood and disaster prevention department said on Sunday afternoon that floodwaters in the Bei River, a southern tributary of the Pearl River, were expected to peak at 37.3 metres (122 feet) by 1am, or about 5.8 metres above the warning line.

Warning levels had already been exceeded at 20 monitoring stations along the waterway by Saturday evening.

Northern and western Guangdong have been battered by intense rainstorms since Friday, breaking rainfall records for April in many places...READ MORE: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3259806/china-issues-once-century-flood-warning-guangdongs-bei-river-zone

Meanwhile, who remembers this document? Are we seeing Weather Wars played out?

Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025

In this paper we show that appropriate application of weather-modification can provide battlespace
dominance to a degree never before imagined. In the future, such operations will enhance air and space
superiority and provide new options for battlespace shaping and battlespace awareness. “The technology is there, waiting for us to pull it all together;” in 2025 we can “Own the Weather.”

Link to pdf document: /tardir/mig/a333462.tiff (dtic.mil)