“Injecting our atmosphere with novel chemical compounds to block the sun is a dangerous path, especially in Florida, where sunshine is our most valuable resource,” Uthmeier wrote Monday.
“Furthermore, as our hearts break for the victims of the flash floods in Texas, I can’t help but notice the possibility that weather modification could have played a role in this tragedy,” Uthmeier continued. “Developing reports show that a weather modification company conducted ‘cloud seeding’ operations just days before the deadly flood. Florida’s new law seeks to prevent something like that from ever happening.”
While in Orlando on Tuesday, Uthmeier responded to a question on the topic by saying “evidence does suggest that there are indeed people that are experimenting with the weather.”
But with more than 130 people killed in the Fourth of July weekend flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas, experts have pushed back against suggestions that chemtrails or cloud seeding caused the disaster.
Travis Herzog, chief meteorologist at ABC13 in Houston posted on Facebook that the flooding was primarily caused by the remains of Tropical Storm Barry, which had formed over the Yucatan Peninsula on June 27, “with an assist” by upper level moisture from Hurricane Flossie, a Pacific Ocean storm that threatened the southwestern coast of Mexico.
“A weak circulation in the mid-levels of the atmosphere developed over central Texas within this super-moist airmass to help organize the storms into a low-pressure complex called a ‘mesoscale convective vortex,’” Herzog posted on July 6.
He also dismissed the notion that cloud seeding was a culprit.
“Cloud seeding cannot create a storm of this magnitude or size,” Herzog wrote. “In fact, cloud seeding cannot even create a single cloud. All it can do is take an existing cloud and enhance the rainfall by up to 20 percent.”
The fact-checking website Snopes rated allegations that cloud seeding caused the flooding as “false.” Snopes said a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson dismissed the claims, noting “the amount of precipitation created by cloud seeding is generally marginal and localized” and “cloud seeding does not add moisture to the atmosphere. This event could only have occurred if abundant moisture was already present.”
The new Florida law (SB 56) bars “injection, release or dispersion, by any means, of a chemical, a chemical compound, a substance, or an apparatus into the atmosphere within the borders of this state for the express purpose of affecting the temperature, weather, climate or intensity of sunlight.”
It also requires operators of publicly owned airports to report monthly to the Department of Transportation any aircraft equipped to release chemicals to affect such conditions. The requirement will take effect Oct. 1. Failure to report carries a fine up to $5,000.
In addition to Uthmeier’s letter, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue sent an additional advisory to airport operators about the new law, noting that the Department of Environmental Protection will forward complaints about operations on airport property.
Perdue said the Department of Transportation has created a website — www.stopchemtrails.com — to list compliance and violations and is developing a database to report enforcement efforts “in a consistent manner.”
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This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2025.