Greek-American meteorologist Katie Nickolaou revealed that she and her colleagues have received death threats from hurricane conspiracy theorists through social media.
Michigan-based Nickolaou, told The Guardian that she and her colleagues have borne the brunt of much of these conspiracies, having received messages claiming there are category 6 hurricanes, that meteorologists or the government are creating and directing hurricanes and even that scientists should be killed and radar equipment be demolished.
“I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” Nickolaou said.
Conspiracy theorists claim meteorologists control hurricanes
“I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed.”
One post aimed at Nickolaou said: “Stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.” She responded: “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.”
“People have called me a plethora of curse words, people telling me to shut up and sit down, people who think it’s OK to take out Doppler radar because they think it is controlling the weather,” Nickolaou told the British newspaper. “It is eating up a lot of work and free time to deal with all of this. It’s very tiring.”
Misinformation about the hurricane
NBC reports that a wide range of misinformation has been spread as Helene and then Milton gathered pace in the Gulf of Mexico, such as claims spread by Donald Trump that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) had run out of cash for hurricane survivors because it has been given to illegal immigrants.
Violent threats have also become common, with posts across TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), alleging that FEMA workers should be beaten or “arrested or shot or hung on sight”.
More outlandishly, several of Trump’s closest allies have baselessly asserted that the federal government is somehow controlling hurricanes. “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation,” claimed a video shared by Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Trump.
“Yes they can control the weather,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, wrote on X last week. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” In another X post made on Wednesday, she continued to imply that the hurricanes were part of a political plot.
“Everyone keeps asking, ‘who is they?’” and added that “some of them are listed on NOAA,” referring to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This steep rise in falsehoods has drawn a sharp response from Joe Biden, who has blamed Trump for an “onslaught of lies” and told the former president to “get a life.”
NBC says that the explosion of misinformation comes just over three weeks before Election Day, with the storms causing some concern over whether people in hard-hit areas will be able to vote.
The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public said in a report published on Wednesday that Milton is set to exacerbate an already muddled situation.