Project Stormfury was an attempt to weaken hurricanes by using cloud seeding in the eyewall of these storms. The project was run by the United States government from 1962 to 1983. Airplanes flew into hurricanes and seeded the storm with silver iodide.
The core idea was that the silver iodide would cause supercooled water in the storm to freeze, disrupting the inner structure of the hurricane. In the 1980s, it was shown that most hurricanes do not contain enough supercooled water for cloud seeding to be effective. Additionally, researchers found that unseeded hurricanes often undergo the same structural changes that were expected from seeded hurricanes. This finding called Stormfury's successes into question, as the changes reported now had a natural explanation.
The last experimental flight was flown in 1971, due to a lack of candidate storms and a changeover in NOAA's aircraft fleet. More than a decade after the last modification experiment, Project Stormfury was officially cancelled.
Although Project Stormfury failed to definitively affect changes to hurricanes, the attempt was not futile. The observational data and storm lifecycle research generated by Stormfury helped improve meteorologists' ability to forecast the movement and intensity of future hurricanes.
Hurricanes seeded by Project Stormfury
- Hurricane Esther (1961) - Esther predated the official start of Project Stormfury, but the attempt helped lead to the project's creation.
- Hurricane Beulah (1963)
- Hurricane Debbie (1969)
- Hurricane Ginger (1971)
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