Scientist Are Working to 'Steer' Hurricanes

E++99 writes "In the wake of Katrina, two teams of climate scientists have been working to steer hurricanes. Both teams are using the technique of removing power and speed from strategic points in the hurricane, effectively refracting its path. The American team is approaching this by warming the areas of the tops of the hurricane clouds, either by dropping ash to absorb heat from the sun, or directly beaming microwaves on those areas from space. The Israeli team is taking the approach of cooling the bottom of the hurricane by releasing dust along its base."

Don't get no respect

[ColdWetDog]

I'm beginning to worry about weather forcasters. After years of being disparaged, belittled and made the butt of countless jokes, they now have a crack at revenge.

Be very afraid.

Watch out Venezuela!

[frankmu]

Hugo Chavez, the Bush Administration will get you yet!

Re:Nukes?

[Ambitwistor]

Your link gives a good explanation: because instead of a hurricane, you get a radioactive hurricane. That doesn't sound like an improvement.

Re:I wonder if it will work...

[Anpheus]

NO! Don't say that!

*runs to grab Companion Cube and proceeds to bomb shelter to wait out the reign of Yet Another New Overlord.*

Re:um ... liability?

[BrentWM]

My insurance covers "acts of God," but I'm not so sure about acts of NOAA.

b/c it must be said

[faderanger]

I for one welcome our new hurricane-steering overlords.

Excellent idea

[SilverBlade2k]

it'll give Oil traders one less excuse to increase the price of oil on whim..

Re:um ... liability?

[Opportunist]

"We're sorry that the hurricane striked your state, we tried to stop it but could only redirect it. And no, the fact that your state voted against the prez in the last election and the one saved voted for him was in no way related to that."

The answer of course

[antifoidulus]

is to get a bunch of people on the shoreline and have them all blow really hard(Sorry, I couldn't think of a way to phrase the previous sentence that WASNT a double entendre.)

Re:Uhmmm......

[gEvil (beta)]

Ooooh! The Department of Weather. I like the sound of that. Sounds very comic bookish. I just hope they give the guy in charge of it the nickname of "The Weatherman". That has supervillain written all over it.

Here's one that worked

[rs79]

In 1994 I met a guy that told me this story. He was out of a masters program in argicultural science and wanted to do someting about the chicken problem whereby you have to feed them antibiotics when they're in close quarters otherwise they get sick. He reasoned that it was filty air that was doing so built a coup that had two walls charged with -15kv to electrostatically clean the air. He said it worked; the ait was clean, the chickens never got sick and there was a 4" thick coating of white fluffy dust.

One day the coup was wiped out by one of the rare hurricanes up here. Specifically the one in the Fergus/Guelph corridor.

He didn't think much of it other than "dammit".

Not long after he got a visit by a bunch of government types (he never said who, but said he was scared from the moment they said "hello".

They explained to him the hurricane was tracking a straight line then took a 10 mile south diversion, wiped out his coup then went back to it's original course. They wanted to know what on earth he had in that coup.

He said "hey, if I could divert the course of a hurricane would I me messing around with chickens?" and they want away.

The cure for communism!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fidel Castro: watch your back!

But this is easy!!!

[k2backhoe]

You can steer hurricanes and tornadoes reliably and easily. You use a heavy lifter like an old B-52 and you approach the storm and drop mobile homes along the path you want the storm to travel. Anyone who has ever seen a TV story on these storms will understand the strong scientific basis for this method.

Re:The answer of course

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry about it, I like a nice pair of double entendres.

Re:Here's one that worked

[StikyPad]

When I was 8 or 9, a tornado touched down about a mile south of our house. It proceeded steadily north, directly toward us, but skipped right over our house at the last second, then immediately touched back down after it passed our house. Our neighbors' houses on either side were completely destroyed. A few hours later, 5 or 6 black SUVs pulled up in front of our house. A bunch of men got out, and started getting things out of the back of their vehicles while 2-3 came up and knocked on our door. They wanted to know how exactly we managed to prevent the tornado from destroying our house. My dad declined to tell them about the force field generator he had been working on in the basement, and fortunately it was disguised as a common microwave oven. I still remember his words to this day: "Hey, if I could divert the course of a tornado, would I be cooking frozen dinners in my basement?" The men looked displeased with his answer, and they went back to the group and said something in hushed voices. The next thing we knew, they proceeded to start demolishing our house with sledgehammers and crowbars. When they were done, our home looked no different than the splintered houses around us. They even took our refrigerator, trucked it a half mile up the road and dumped it in a field, to make it the damage look authentic. "Tell no one," they said, and left as quickly as they had come.

Later that evening, we were driving around searching for food. We found a KFC open about 30 miles away, but there was a line halfway down the block -- apparently everyone else was doing the same. My dad decided we would just go to the 7-11 across the street instead. I got a hot dog, some milk, and some candy, and my dad got a couple of sodas and some nachos. Back in the car, I offered him some of my candy. "These things are amazing," I said, "You've got to try them!" He poured some Pop Rocks in his mouth, and washed them down with a swig of Pepsi. Almost immediately, he started crying out in pain. My mom rushed him to the nearest hospital, almost 20 minutes away. Fortunately, we got there in time, and the doctors successfully operated on his distended and ruptured stomach. Over the next few days, many well-wishers showed up, one of whom had found our family cat, Patches. The nurses made a special exception, and allowed the cat to sleep in the bed with my old man, who I imagine was rather depressed in light of recent events, though he never showed it. Unfortunately, that cat was NOT Patches, as we later learned, only too late. The next morning, we found my old man cold and still in his bed. The cat had eaten his soul.

Re:This is disheartening

[caranha]

Imagine the Slashdot posts on the "Man invents fire" story.

In Soviet Russia, small pieces of wood rub YOU!

Imagine a beowulf cluster of sticks!

1) Rub two sticks against each other
2) Set yourself on fire
3) ???
4) Profit!

... and so on.

mod parent "insightful"

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally, something plausible!

Tornado destroyers?

[WetCat]

Being lived in Kansas, I always wondered, while tornadoes brought so much destroy to the cities, and were easily detectable on a meteo radars, why not fire high explosive rockets to them at least in attempt to destroy or diminish that tornado?

Re:This is disheartening

[hmccabe]

Imagine the Slashdot posts on the "Man invents fire" story.

Requires fuel. Less light than the daytime. Lame.

Re: Easy solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Find and kill that damned butterfly that keeps flapping its wings at the wrong time.

Re:Sounds dangerous

[Anonymous Coward]

Get involved with genetic engineering and help discover a way!