No, the government does not control the weather. “It’s so stupid, it has to stop,” Biden said

President Biden on Wednesday addressed what he called “stupid” claims that the federal government can control the weather false claim was promoted by some politicians and prominent personalities.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying that the federal government literally controls the weather, we control the weather. This is beyond ridiculous. It’s so stupid, it has to stop,” Mr. Biden said in his Remarks from the White House. He also promised federal support for hurricane recovery efforts.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has created a new Hurricane Rumor Response page to combat misinformation. The White House has created an official Reddit account with posts focused on debunking hurricane misinformation. And many local officials took to social media to push back against harmful policies Misinformation.

Representative Chuck Edwards, a Republican from North Carolina, sent a letter to his constituents in the wake of Hurricane Helene They urge them to beware of “untrustworthy sources attempting to spark chaos by spreading hoaxes, conspiracy theories and hearsay about hurricane response efforts in our mountains.”

Claims that the government had Hurricane Milton under control spread across social media platforms such as X, TikTok and Facebook just days after similar false claims were spread during Hurricane Helene. A post on X with more than 100,000 views claimed Hurricane Milton was a “modified and manipulated” storm being used as a “weapon.”

“Yes, they can control the weather,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Year 2013, in which a physics professor spoke about laboratory experiments investigating the possible use of lasers to influence the weather.

Several meteorology experts told CBS News it is not possible to create or control hurricanes, with one expert calling the claim “complete nonsense.”

Some social media users also point to geoengineering, which NASA describes as proposed plans “to reverse or limit climate change through deliberate, large-scale manipulation of Earth's climate.” But “geoengineering couldn’t create or control hurricanes,” said Joshua Horton, a senior program fellow who studies solar geoengineering at Harvard University.

“It doesn’t currently exist, but if it did, geoengineering would be far too imprecise to control the weather or weather events like hurricanes,” Horton said.

Some social media users have also pointed to cloud seeding as proof that the government can control Hurricane Milton. Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that can improve a cloud's ability to produce rain or snow, according to the Nevada-based Desert Research Institute, which has its own cloud seeding program. Cloud seeding has been around since the 1940s, and dozens of countries have such programs.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, research into influencing hurricanes through cloud seeding was conducted between 1962 and 1983, but the project ended after the seeding was found to be ineffective compared to the hurricane's natural forces.

Charles Konrad, a professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill's Department of Geography and Environment, said it's important to recognize that hurricane modifications have been tested in the past but were ineffective.

“They tried to modify hurricanes and in the end they realized they couldn’t,” he said.

Konrad said hurricanes are “large atmospheric entities” that require an “incredible amount of energy” – more energy than humans can use to weaken or direct the storm.

Hugh Willoughby, a research professor at Florida International University whose work focuses on hurricanes, said he was unaware of U.S. programs to revive the hurricane modification project. He said the idea that the government could control a hurricane was “complete nonsense.”

Konrad said the National Hurricane Center is a trusted source for anyone seeking verified information about hurricanes. “We have the best and brightest, very specialized tropical meteorologists who have dedicated their careers to understanding these things,” he said.