You may call it controlling the weather, but in scientific terms, it’s known as weather modification. Bottom line, it’s just a fancy way of explaining how people alter weather conditions on a small or big scale. So let’s start with why it’s getting so much attention. Over the summer, you may have seen stories about what’s called cloud seeding. Weather experts in Dubai launch laser drones, yes, laser drones to shock rainwater out of the sky and help cool down extremely hot days.

While it worked and the area did see some rain, it’s not really an exact science, at least yet. Essentially, the process just helps push along the cycle of a rain cloud. But they can’t really control things like how much rain an area will get. And this idea of cloud seeding isn’t a new one. Since the 1940s, silver iodide and other chemicals have been released by planes up in the atmosphere to help with the development of clouds and help kickstart some rain.

This method has been primarily used in areas trying to recover from droughts and to help replenish those water supplies. Like in Dubai, it can also be used for helping to clear out fog or even reducing the amount of hail in a storm. Here’s the problem, though. Like we mentioned, cloud seeding isn’t that reliable. It’s also not that cost effective. Not every cloud can be seeded, and it is difficult to know how much rain or snow will be created, especially in more complex cloud systems.

So while humans can’t exactly control storms or create them out of thin air, we are seeing long term impacts on our weather brought on by human activity like CO2 emissions. We’re talking about the extremes we’re seeing when it comes to storms and temperatures, and that’s what the science says when it comes to humans controlling the weather. .