"This is not natural": conspiracy theories claiming the Valencia floods was caused by weather manipulation

There are some contents that say that the floods that affected the Valencian Community and other parts of Spain in October 2024 was not natural. There are different conspiracy theories that claim, for example, that it was a provoked attack to damage the Spanish agriculture and favor the sale of products from Morocco. These are all the disinformation that have gone viral these days claiming that it is not a natural disaster:

• “Radars deflected the clouds to the province of Valencia”. This theory states that these devices move the clouds with electromagnetic pulses. The radar located in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) was directly accused of causing the floods.

• “A HAARP meteorological attack”. This one defends that this radio emitter that studies a high layer of the atmosphere is used to alter the atmospheric weather, in this case, through ships in the coasts of Valencia days before the catastrophe.

• “It's the chemtrails' fault”. According to this conspiracy, we are “fumigated” with airplanes to manipulate the weather or poison us. 

What we know: In reality, there is no technology capable of controlling and manipulating the weather to generate and direct environmental disasters (much less of this caliber) and use them as a weapon to attack. 

One reflection: If such a mechanism had really been created, why is it not being used as a weapon in wars? Does Morocco have the technology, but Israel or Russia do not?

Weather radars are used to track storms and follow their evolution, but they cannot deflect precipitation

A few days after the catastrophe, contents began to circulate claiming that the weather radar in Morón de la Frontera (Seville) had moved the clouds that caused the floods towards the province of Valencia. According to this theory (which does not provide any evidence), these meteorological detectors are capable of “ moving” and “destroy” the clouds with “electromagnetic pulses”. In fact, these devices are used to track storms and follow their evolution, but they cannot deflect them.

This type of radar emits electromagnetic pulses with a specific wavelength to detect water drops, snow or hail. When these waves interact with any of these elements, they bounce back to the radar with a frequency change. A more extensive and detailed description of how this tool works can be found here. AEMET also denied this hoax in its official Twitter account (now X).

Related to the floods, an image of a rain radar has also gone viral with messages claiming that “static, sharp clouds” can be seen. This image also fails to justify that the torrential rains were caused by any technology. These straight lines are false echoes: interferences or errors in their operation that usually happen in these radars, regardless of this rainfall episode. These interferences are produced by sea waves, smoke or wifi networks, among others; and have been used in other occasions to disinform.

HAARP is a scientific program that studies a high layer of the atmosphere and does not affect the weather on the earth's surface

On the day after the catastrophe (October 30th), content began to go viral claiming that the HAARP project had been used to cause the torrential rains in Valencia. They claim that a ship was near the coast of Valencia before the floods and blame it for the flooding. These messages are part of a conspiracy theory that the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) can modify the weather.

HAARP is a radio transmitter located in Alaska (United States) that investigates the ionosphere, an upper layer of the Earth's atmosphere. It has no capability to affect climate or weather because its signal does not affect the lower layers of the atmosphere (where weather phenomena originate). And, in order to influence, the system would need much more energy than it uses, as several experts explained to Maldita.es.

Furthermore, we tell you two other important facts that explain why the October floods in Valencia was not provoked:

• It did not arrive unexpectedly to Spain. AEMET warned of heavy rains in the Mediterranean area several days before the disaster. The first warnings arrived on Wednesday, October the 23rd (almost a week before), although it was not yet possible to determine in which areas the water would be poured. On Sunday 27th, the agency already warned that Tuesday 29th would be the “peak day”, most probable in the Mediterranean area. Here you can consult the complete chronology of this floods. 

• The images of the ship that have gone viral were not taken off the coast of Valencia. This video (showing a floating power plant) was recorded in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on September 24th (2024), one month before the first warnings of the arrival of the floods to Spain. And this other image is taken from a video published in 2017 and recorded in Istanbul (Turkey).

  

  Airplane contrails are not chemtrails, they are water vapor frozen by low temperatures

  Recent days have also seen messages relating chemtrails to the appearance of floods. This conspiracy theory claims, without evidence, that airplanes drop dangerous chemicals to poison the population or modify the weather. Chemtrails are, according to this theory, the white trails seen in the sky when an airplane passes overhead.

  

  However, there is an answer: the burning of fuel in airplane engines produces large quantities of water vapor which, when it enters a cold environment (airplanes fly at altitudes where the air is at -35°C or lower) forms drops and ice crystals. In other words, it condenses forming a contrail. Don't worry if you have seen images of airplanes with these contrails on the wings and not on the engine, because it doesn't mean that we are being “fumigated”. In some cases, the water contained in the air that travels through the plane condenses on the ends of the wings due to the higher pressure. 

  Moreover, AEMET meteorologist and communicator Benito Fuentes explains that the volume of precipitation that has been recorded would be about 700 billion liters of water and “no plane can handle that amount”. And he adds that, to evaporate and move it to the earth, it would take an amount of energy equivalent to more than twice what is produced in Spain in a year or that generated by 25,000 nuclear bombs.

  …recogida asciende a 30 x 23255 x 1000000 = 697 650 000 000. ¡¡Casi 700 mil millones de litros de agua!!
  Es imposible explicarle a un conspiranoico que no hay avión o polvos mágicos que puedan manejar tal cantidad. Ha visto demasiadas películas. pic.twitter.com/NMGaTnl67Z

  — Benito Fuentes (@metbeni) October 30, 2024

  Other times the HAARP project, chemtrails and radars have been blamed for causing natural disasters

  This is not the first time that these conspiracy theories have been used to justify a natural disaster in another country. For example, weather radar towers were accused (without any evidence) of modifying the weather and causing and controlling hurricanes in the United States. 

  In September 2023, storm Daniel broke two dams in the city of Derna (on the eastern coast of Libya), around 1,300 kilometers east of the capital (Tripoli). The floods caused thousands of deaths. The HAARP project was then blamed (also without evidence) for causing the rains that led to this tragedy.

  It has also been blamed for causing earthquakes. When, in fact, HAARP does not affect the tectonic plates that produce them. There is no way the radio waves from this U.S. system can cause effects on solid ground, according to experts asked by Maldita.es.

  Chemtrails is also a common narrative in periods of drought. One version of the conspiracy of the “provoked drought” is that with this presumed “ fumigation” from airplanes the rain pattern is altered so that it does not rain in Spain and it rains in Morocco (to promote agriculture in the African country at the expense of the Spanish primary sector). Even photographs have been used to “prove” this theory, but as we have already explained in Maldita.es these images do not prove that the weather is controlled. In this example, they are real but show different stages of an anticyclone that reached Spain in February 2024.

  The current artificial weather modification techniques do not have the ability to cause floods

  Although it is true that along history experiments have been done to modify the weather (but not the climate) artificially, they do not have the capacity to cause torrential rains like those registered in Valencia on October 29th. Currently, there are countries that have programs in place to do this on an occasional basis in some places. One of these actual techniques (not called geoengineering) is cloud seeding with silver iodide. This is a method used to try to make hail fall smaller and not damage crops or to increase rainfall. 

  Their efficiency is not clear and AEMET insists that they can increase rains by 20% “in the best of cases”. But they cannot provoke anything similar to a hail storm or floods, much less direct it towards a specific point. If Morocco really has enough technology to destroy the Spanish agricultural sector by provoking storms, why aren't other countries that have more resources than Morocco doing the same? And, if there was a technology capable of causing floods, earthquakes or any natural catastrophe, why is it not being used in armed conflicts?

  Emergency situations are a favorable situation for the emergence of hoaxes. At Maldita.es we continue to debunk hoaxes and disinformation related to the floods and various conspiracy theories since last Tuesday 29 October. It is essential: trust only official sources and, when in doubt, it is preferable not to share them. Here you can consult tools and sources for information on the floods that is sweeping across Spain.